Play Secretary
by Rai Lockhart
Summary: After quitting her last job due to personal reasons, Sakura Haruno is pushed into a new one: Being the personal assistant of one of the best lawyers in town, Sasuke Uchiha. Not that she minds, however...
1. Get a Job!

**A/N: So for all of you who thought I dropped off the face of the Earth recently, I haven't. I'm still here... I just didn't put anything up because I decided to take a break from thinking about updating. But I've still been writing... **

**I hope you enjoy! Read and review, please.**

"I need a job," Sakura sighed heavily, dropping her bag onto the dining room table. She plopped herself down into a seat, and picked up the newspaper, hoping to see her next dream job jump out at her.

Ino looked over from the kitchen, rolling her eyes. It had been like this every day since Sakura quit her last job, and, quite frankly, it was getting annoying. She had a great job doing the thing she loved the most, but no… She had to go and quit because of 'personal reasons'.

If the savings from her old salary wasn't helping pay the rent and buy the food, Ino _so_ would have said something by now.

"See anything good?"

"Not really."

Sakura sighed once more as she set the paper down on the white table. "This is ridiculous! It should not be this hard to find a regular job!"

"Welcome to the world of the non-med school educated woman, Sakura." Ino finished chopping up the cucumber to add to the salad she was making for herself. "We had to apply to countless jobs before someone even interviewed us. It was a lot of hard work, and a lot of disappointment. I know, it's shocking. But not everyone can just apply to a world class hospital and get accepted because of their name and their teacher's recommendation." The blonde picked up her bowl, and walked over to the table.

"I get it; you had to work hard to get your job, whereas I was handed mine, yadda yadda. It's just frustrating that I went through school for all those years, and now I'm out of work," Sakura said, folding her arms across her chest as she leaned back and pouted.

Ino swallowed the piece of lettuce she was chewing. The constant complaining of the pink haired woman was grating on her very patient nerves. But she would endure, for the sake of her best friend. Or not. "I feel bad for you, Sakura. I really do. But this whole 'Bleh bleh I worked hard, had a great job, then quit' thing, it's old." Another forkful of salad was thoughtfully chewed and swallowed.

Sakura dropped her pout, and narrowed her emerald eyes at her best friend. "Well excuse me for having job troubles! I'd like to see you get a job in this town! There's nothing!"

Ino said nothing as Sakura stood up, and made her way to the kitchen. After all, the blonde knew how to win an argument with her friend. First, you let her think she has won. And so the silence stretched on as Sakura calmed, thinking Ino was at a loss for words. Second tip for winning an argument with Sakura, get her distracted with food.

"There's leftover spaghetti in the fridge from last night if you're hungry, forehead," Ino pointed out.

"Thanks!" Sakura replied cheerfully, grabbing the container of noodles and helping herself to a plateful. The microwave hummed and she smiled, watching her food heat up. The buzzer rang, she grabbed the food, and the sauce from the jar was applied. Sakura picked up her food, and walked over to the table.

"Shikamaru called today. He reminded me to tell you that the secretary job at his firm is still open," Ino shot back, her eyes shining with the thoughts of victory. "I know you think being a secretary is beneath your medical degree, but it is a job."

Sakura dropped the fork she had just barely picked up, and stared, open mouthed, at Ino.

"I mean, I know the job market is so dead that you would never find a job, but this will pay well, as I told you before. Not the money you were making as a doctor, but well above my salary." She watched as Sakura ran through her usual 'Post-argument-with-Ino' emotions: confusion, understanding, anger, and finally defense.

Which was, in Ino's opinion, the best part about being passive aggressive. "I-I-I… It's just… a secretary, Ino… In a law firm? And…" she stuttered along, trying to form a coherent sentence. "You did that on purpose!" she finally blurted out. "You waited until I was content with my victory!"

"Don't change the subject on me, forehead. There is a perfectly fine, well paying job you could get as long as you fit the one qualification, and you refuse to take it because you want to wait until something like 'School Nurse Wanted' appears in the paper!"

The former doctor sank into her seat, knowing Ino was right. It was a good job at one of the most prestigious law firms in Konoha, the Uchiha Law Group. And being Shikamaru's secretary wasn't so- "Wait, you said something about there being one condition. What is it?"

Ino looked up from the green leaves she was almost finished with, and smiled. "Well, Sasuke has to like you. That's all."

Sakura's eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter. "The job was to be SASUKE UCHIHA'S secretary? I thought it was for Shikamaru?"

"No, Shikamaru already has someone; one of Chouji's cousins needed a job, and Shikamaru didn't have the heart to tell her no. She works well, though, so he's happy. Doesn't take much… Anyway, Sasuke's last secretary was fired for who knows why, but he's looking again."

"Sasuke Uchiha…" Sakura muttered, swallowing her spaghetti. She had seen him before; he was one of the most famous people in Konoha. He was a great lawyer, a handsome man, and all around a pretty cool guy, apparently. On top of all that, he was only 26. His law firm was definitely the best around, and featured six of the smartest men in town: Himself, Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and of course two of her friends, Shikamaru and Sai.

Sakura remembered disliking the firm because it was all men lawyers and mostly female assistants. But the fact of the matter was, Sasuke only took the best as his associates, and there weren't many woman lawyers in Konoha. Sakura guessed that if there was a woman who was as brilliant as Shikamaru or Sai, they'd be hired on in a minute.

So she figured Sasuke was just a really good judge of ability.

Sai had once taken her to a company party, and she had seen Sasuke, surrounded by giggling girls, looking slightly annoyed and kind of embarrassed.

"He doesn't really like the attention," Sai had told her.

"Then why doesn't he tell them to leave him alone?" Sakura had asked, watching him push past the hoard and try to make it to Naruto. They instantly surrounded him again.

"It would be bad for his family's reputation, considering most of those girls also come from rich families that know his well. He can't hurt the wrong people. So he lets them hang all over him; after all, it's not like he had a girlfriend, so he has no reason to tell them to stop."

At the time, Sakura had felt bad for him. But over time, she had forgotten about the party, and the rumors of the playboy Uchiha reached her ears. It seemed like every girl in town had been hit on by or kissed Sasuke, and Sakura soon found it hard to sympathize with him.

"Fine," Sakura croaked. "I'll apply for the job. But chances are I won't even get to the interview stage. My only experience is with medicine, remember?"

Ino, who had finished her salad and cleaned up during Sakura's long flashback, shrugged as turned on the TV in the living room. "It's okay, Shikamaru made a personal recommendation for you. You have an interview tomorrow at 9 o'clock in the morning. He said to forget the résumé, because they only decide on face to face meetings when it comes to Sasuke."

Again, the pink haired girl was astonished. Shikamaru had thought of everything in her excuse arsenal!

"Well, I better shower and get to bed, then. Big day tomorrow."

"'Night, forehead."

"Goodnight, evil pig."

**A/n: So I hoped you liked it! Yessir, this is going to be a Naruto story not revolving around ShikaSaku! I'll update ASAP, I promise.**


	2. Interviews and Lunches

**A/n: Quick update, no? I hope you guys like it!**

**Disclaimed: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned here.  
**

**REVIEW PLEASE. Anything would be nice.**

It was bright outside, much to Sakura's disappointment. She had hoped that it would be pouring rain or there would be a tornado, so Ino would take pity on her, let her sleep in, and forget about this whole interview thing.

Of course, it's not that Sakura was opposed to work. On the contrary, she adored working. She loved being challenged and being occupied by problems. She enjoyed the small headache that sometimes came with a hard medical case or the confusion and wonder that was generally associated with a little known disease. And the best part was when the patient was happy and healthy.

But as an assistant for a notorious playboy, Sakura knew she would not get the kind of challenge associated with medicine sitting behind a desk answering the phone.

"Ino's right, though," Sakura mumbled to herself. "I quit my job, and I need a new one."

The waiting room located inside the law firm was incredibly large, and had seven doors. One lead to the outside, and the other six lead to the offices of the personal assistants. The room was filled with young women, ranging from the late teens to early thirties.

Ino had warned Sakura about this interview today. Usually, the interviewee was called in by the employer or human resources department. They met, one on one, with no one else in the waiting room. But Ino relayed the information Shikamaru gave her, and said the person conducting the interviews could only be here today, and was very efficient in making decisions.

Sakura noticed with a strange disapproval something that all of these women, excluding her, had in common: they were all dressed slightly, well, sluttily. A woman Sakura guessed was in her early thirties wore a tight shirt that was unbuttoned to the beginning of her breasts. Another girl wore a tight, short skirt.

"_I feel slightly overdressed,'_ Sakura thought, looking at all the women compare their outfits with other applicants as they were called. Some seemed smug, others seemed devastated. And as each girl came out with a slightly disappointed look on her face, the remaining women seemed to brighten, and then begin comparing themselves again.

"Sakura Haruno?" a woman asked hesitantly to the room. Sakura's eyes were drawn to her, and she realized she was being called.

"Oh," Sakura muttered as she stood up. All the eyes in the room were drawn to her in a second, and Sakura knew they were all satisfied. She was not wearing something slutty. Sakura had dressed for a job interview, not a chance to be in a brothel.

"Take a seat in here. Mrs. Uchiha will be out in a moment."

"Wait," Sakura said to the quiet woman. "If you're here, why does Mr. Uchiha need an assistant?"

The girl smiled, and her lavender eyes lit up. "I'm actually the personal assistant for Mr. Hyuuga. My name is Hinata Hyuuga, his cousin. You're the first person to take notice of me and ask that."

"That isn't part of the interview, is it?" Sakura asked Hinata, who shook her head.

"No, but it just feels nice to have someone take notice of me," she said with a smile. "Mrs. Uchiha will be here any second, but don't be scared. I think she'll like you." Hinata left the room, which Sakura assumed would be Sasuke's assistant's office, and left Sakura by herself.

As she waited, her eyes taking in the bare room with one plant, three exits, and a large window, the door to Sasuke's office opened, and a woman with dark hair and critical eyes walked in. Sakura immediately stood, and stuck her hand out.

The woman looked at it, looked up at Sakura, and then shook the outstretched hand. "Ms. Haruno, I presume?" the woman inquired as the two took their respective seats. Sakura nodded. "I am Mikoto Uchiha, but you can just call me Mrs. Uchiha."

"Hello, Mrs. Uchiha," Sakura said with a smile. Silence followed her greeting, and suddenly Sakura felt nervous for even speaking.

"You're not dressed like a whore," Mrs. Uchiha noted.

"I'm not accustomed to dressing inappropriately, especially in the workplace," Sakura replied. "Is this a problem?"

"No. All the other applicants have come in, dressed like harlots, expecting Sasuke to be the one who is interviewing them. It's nice to see change. But would you do it if Sasuke asked you to dress like a whore?" Mrs. Uchiha asked.

Sakura wondered where she was going with these questions. _"Oh well, better answer them truthfully,"_ Sakura decided. "Especially not if Mr. Uchiha asked me to dress inappropriately."

A smile erupted on the face of Mrs. Uchiha, and suddenly Sakura felt uneasy. "What did you do before this, Miss Haruno?"

"I worked in Konoha General Hospital as a doctor."

"So you have a PhD in Medicine?"

"Yes ma'am," Sakura volunteered easily.

"If you were a doctor, why were you fired or why did you quit?" the woman asked quickly, watching Sakura.

Sakura gulped uncomfortably. "I quit because of personal reasons. There were some parts of my job that I couldn't deal with. A friend of mine died and despite my best efforts, I could not save him. I would go into detail, but it is unnecessary. This reason, however, will not affect this job in the least."

"Oh." Mrs. Uchiha was silent for a few moments, and Sakura knew, right then, that she had ruined the interview. Not being able to withstand the death of a friend was a sign of weakness. Sakura was unstable. She was unwilling to accept failure. These were all bad signs. All turnoffs for prospective employers.

"You come highly recommended from Mr. Nara, Miss Haruno. He says that you are very organized, incredibly smart, and extremely capable of taking care of Sasuke's every need within the workplace. You have experience with computers from your previous job, I'd assume, and I can infer that you are dedicated, seeing as you went through medical school. Also," she added softly, "you have a lot of heart, and your emotions guide some decision you make. You'll make a superb personal assistant for my son," she finished cheerfully. "Now, we need to talk about hours, salary, overtime, reimbursements, and the works. Hinata!"

The lavender eyed girl appeared through the entrance on the side wall, not from the waiting room but not from Sasuke's office, either.

"Tell all those women to go home. I've found the girl I'm looking for, the only one in the room who dressed appropriately. She will make a fine addition to our staff." Hinata nodded, a smile evident on her face.

Sakura stared at the woman in disbelief. "You haven't even interviewed those other women yet. How do you know there isn't one who comes better qualified than me?"

"I've seen all of their résumés. And Shikamaru is quite intelligent. His recommendations are usually spot on. So, for the job you will be doing, I'd say about 70,000 dollars a year sounds about right."

"S-Seventy thousand? That's a lot of money for this position," Sakura said. Of course, she had been paid about 80,000 dollars more in her last job, but still. A lot of people would kill for this salary.

"Trust me. Seventy thousand dollars is about right. And since I like you, I'll boost it up to seventy five thousand a year. You'll work Monday through Friday, 9am to 6pm. Your hours might extend longer than that if Sasuke needs you to be here, though. You will be on call all weekend, just in case. And so that way you won't use up your own cell's minutes, we'll issue you a work phone. You will need to drive your own car, but we will pay for all gas mileage used while on the job.

"Your job entails answering the phone, taking messages for Sasuke, informing him of visitors and clients, writing reports, writing emails, responding to emails, running papers to other offices, checking his mailbox every day, making any copies necessary , faxing, scanning, getting food, taking care of his social schedule, and really anything else he needs you for. You may be asked by another of my son's associates to help them. This is fine, but Sasuke and his needs come first. If he calls you over the weekend and needs your help with something, you are to help him. Let's see, what else…

"Ah yes! Dress appropriately every day, and beware of the women who will try and sexually harass my little boy. Because they will come, and you must be prepared. Shiho, the secretary, will call you if one of the girls comes through the door demanding to see him. It's your job to deter them. You'll start tomorrow morning!"

Sakura could only nod, taken aback by the woman's excitement. Mrs. Uchiha stood up, and walked back into Sasuke's office. Sakura just sat there, stunned.

"Sakura?" came a timid voice from behind. "You can leave now, if you'd like." Hinata was fiddling with her thumbs as Sakura jolted back to reality, and stood up.

"So it seems we're going to be working together now," Sakura said with a smile. Hinata smiled back.

"It will be nice to have you here. You're more conversational and nicer than most of the other people that work here. Most of them just keep to themselves."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

Hinata looked toward the slightly open office door, and then pulled Sakura into the adjacent room. "This is my office. Through that door is Mr. Inuzuka's assistant Ryo, which is next to the break room, then Mr. Uzumaki's assistant Konohamaru, followed by Mr. Nara and his assistant Mei, and then Mr. Sai is the last associate down the hall. We're all connected. Ryo and Konohamaru are very rambunctious and womanizers; I try to stay away from them. You probably should, too. Mei is quiet, and never talks. Shiho, the secretary, is strange, but nice. As for all the lawyers, well… Mr. Nara is smart but doesn't talk a lot. Kiba- Oh! I mean Mr. Inuzuka- is an old friend of mine, but I don't have the chance to speak to him a lot. Mr. Uzumaki is wild and funny but very busy, Neji doesn't like to be disturbed, and Mr. Sai… well, I've never actually spoken to him very much. Mr. Uchiha is quiet and rarely comes into anyone else's office.

"You know, you're the first assistant Mrs. Uchiha has personally picked for Sasuke?" Hinata clamped her hand over her mouth, obviously thinking she had either said too much or said something wrong. "Oh, I apologize! I've been monopolizing the conversation!"

It was apparent to Sakura that Hinata got bored at work, and had no one to talk to. "It's fine! It's good to hear about my fellow future staff members," Sakura assured her. "Why did she pick the assistant this time?"

"Well, Sasuke's past assistants have all been friends of the family, and therefore rich and only interested in Sasuke, not work. We're not all like that, though… Most of the people working in this building come from old, prestigious families; my family has always been close with the Inuzuka's, Uzumaki's, and the Uchiha's. Mr. Nara comes from an old family as well, but he never really attended any of the parties when he was younger, so I've never really talked to him."

Sakura snorted. "Typical Shikamaru. Everything was probably 'too troublesome' to do," she said, shaking her head.

"You know him?" Hinata asked.

"Yeah, Shikamaru and Sai are two very good friends of mine."

The door opened behind them, and Sai walked into Hinata's office. Hinata looked surprised to see him, but Sai was all smiles.

"I come in here to see Neji and instead I get to see the ever amazing Miss Hyuuga!" Hinata blushed at his compliment, and mumbled an intelligible response. Sai turned his ever present smile to Sakura. "You're here too, Sakura?"

"You knew I was coming in for an interview, Sai. I told you last night, and you just laughed and said you thought I would fit the job perfectly." Sakura crossed her arms over her chest, and Sai laughed again.

"Miss Hyuuga, if you'll excuse us, I have a lunch date with Miss Haruno here."

"Wh-huh?" Sakura stuttered, her arms dropping and eyebrows knitting together.

Hinata smiled. "N-No, it's okay. Goodbye, Sakura, Mr. Sai. See you tomorrow." Hinata offered a small goodbye wave as Sai pulled Sakura out of the office.

"A lunch date? Really, Sai?"

"I wanted to hear all about your exciting interview with my employer. And now, your employer as well." His amused grin grew as Sakura just rolled her eyes and allowed herself to be lead out of the building. "That is, if you got the job? I don't really hear much on my side of the building, it's so far away from the action. And there are no gossiping secretaries near me," Sai said, opening his car door for Sakura.

"I drove my own," she pointed out. He just shook his head, and offered her the seat again. This time she took it, climbing into the black, sleek car and sitting on the tan leather seat.

Sai shut the door behind her, and quickly moved onto the driver's side. The car started as he got in, and he quickly backed out of the parking lot. "You'll just have to retrieve your car later. I couldn't let you drive that piece of junk car while my brand new one was only a few spaces away, now could I? That would just be rude," he said pleasantly.

Sakura's eye twitched angrily. "For your information, my car is not a piece of junk. It might not be up to your car's standards, but it most certainly runs."

"If you insist, Sakura," Sai replied with a grin. "Maybe with your new salary you can afford something better?"

"If I wanted a lot of money, I would have just stayed at the hospital, Sai. I made at least twice as much there. I'm just doing this to help contribute to the rent and to get Ino off of my back."

The dark haired man tapped his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds as he pulled up to a stoplight. "Yes, you were making more working as a doctor. Well, I guess you won't trade that thing in until it falls apart. But then again, I guess the car matches you quite well – Old and messy, but you work just fine," he said cheerfully, as though he wasn't insulting her.

The car pulled into a small parking lot filled with other expensive cars. Sakura sunk into her seat, eyeing the women walking in and out of the restaurant. Each and every one of them were in long dresses with necklaces adorning their necks and purses hanging from their shoulders.

"Can we go someplace that's not here?" she asked quickly.

"Nervous about the number of rich people?" Sai said with a snort. "These are the people that we deal with on a daily basis, Sakura. Our clientele is composed of only people from rich, wealthy families, just like all of our lawyers and even secretaries."

"Expect for you," Sakura said.

"And you."

"I guess we make sort of a pair, huh? The two of us in a rich and prestigious company such as the Law Firm of Uchiha, Hyuuga, Inuzuka, Uzumaki, Nara, and Partner."

"Why am I the only one that doesn't get to be in the firm's name, huh?" Sai joked, a very fake pout on his usually smiling face.

Sakura just smiled, ignoring his question. "So are we going in?"

Sai nodded, the smile returned. He slipped out of the car quickly, and was opening the door for Sakura before she even registered what was going on. He gripped her hand and helped her out of the car, and Sakura couldn't help but smile.

"Thanks, Sai."

The pair walked into the restaurant. Sakura was looking around, awestruck at how amazing the inside of the place looked. "This is beautiful," she commented.

"Well, God knows this place can afford it. The prices are astronomical," Sai joked as they sat down and the host announced the waitress would be around in a minute.

After a short amount of time looking over the menu, Sakura decided to take Sai's advice and let him order for them. The waitress walked over. "Are you ready to order?" she asked politely.

"Yes," Sai responded. "I will have this, and a side of this, while she wants to order this with this on it."

The woman smiled, thinking that this was a surprise type of date. Sakura could almost hear the "I have the sweetest couple sitting over at table four, you simply have to see them!" as she rushed over to place the order.

"So what type of food am I going to be enjoying on this lovely lunch outing?" Sakura asked.

"It's a secret," Sai said, pressing a finger to his lips as he smirked. "How was the interview?"

"Well, I got hired because I wasn't dressed like a… like a _lady of the night_, if you catch my drift. I was almost sad because of how easy it was, but hey, I guess I can't complain. It is a job."

"And you get to work with me! It's like karma smiled down on you today."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, because it's my life's ambition to be the secretary of Sasuke Uchiha, just because I work in the same building as you. Speaking of, why did I have to become his secretary when you don't have one?"

His response was a shrug and a light smile. "I don't need one. I'm too efficient for one. Even one as pretty as you are." He winked.

The compliment was a rare one from him, and Sakura felt herself blush in response.

"Aha, that's perfect! So compliments really do make you blush? Or was it because I was the one who complimented you?" he asked, a laugh sprouting from his mouth.

Sakura fought to keep the blush from deepening at her embarrassment. "I only blushed because it was a compliment, not because it was from you," she said, trying to keep her composure.

"Oh, so now my compliments aren't special?"

"I didn't- That's not what I meant and you know it."

The waitress took this opportunity to interrupt and set down the food Sai had ordered for them. "Here you go. I hope that you enjoy the meal, ma'am, sir." Sai smiled at her, and Sakura could tell she was having a hard time not blushing.

"Thank you very much, miss."

Sakura had to admit, it was hard to ignore Sai. He was perky, funny, and, dare she admit it, cute. Handsome. Very handsome. His skin was pale and flawless. His hair was dark, medium length, and it could be messy one day and perfectly styled the next. Sure, he could be mean, but he was there when she needed him. And his smile, the genuine one, could lift anyone out of a bad mood. It was such a pity he barely ever really smiled.

"This looks delicious, what is it?" Sakura

"Well, the dish I have is called tartiflette. It a special dish made with a certain type of cheese. And what you have is blanquette de veau, which is veal in a white sauce. I hope you enjoy."

She took one bit of her food, and her taste buds screamed in joy. She savored the first bite, unaware of the way that Sai was watching her as she closed her eyes in ecstasy. He smiled one of his rare genuine smiles, and dug into his own food.

"You know me too well. This is just perfect," she said, looking down at her food.

"What can I say; I know what type of French cuisine you'd like to eat."

"I want to try some of yours," she said, looking at the cheesy dish her friend was eating.

Sai shook his head. "No, you won't like it."

"You're only saying that so you can have it all for yourself!"

"So what if I am?" he asked, his eyes glowing with amusement. He took another bite as Sakura sat back, her hands folded over her chest and a visible pout on her face. "Oh, that's not fair," he said after he swallowed. "You're pouting. How can I ever resist you pouting?"

He pushed the dish toward her, and she took out a small portion. Soon, the fork was coming out of her mouth, clean.

"This is good, too!" she said when she swallowed. "I never knew I liked French food."

"You learn new things every day," he said. "I learned about this restaurant from your new boss, actually. He usually gets take out from here."

A look of confusion donned Sakura's face. "But there was sign before that said: 'No Take Out – We are NOT Fast Food.'"

Sai smirked. "Ah, but you forget. That sign means no take out for ordinary folks, such as us. For Sasuke Uchiha, anything is possible."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "That's ridiculous. No one should play favorites. It's not my fault I wasn't born into a rich family."

"In their eyes," Sai said, gesturing to the customers, "it is."

The waitress arrived with the check, and Sai took out his wallet.

"No, here, let me pay for mine," Sakura protested. She moved her hand to her purse, but Sai stopped her.

"This is a congratulatory lunch for you and your new job, Sakura. I couldn't let you pay for it. And Shikamaru would kill me if I didn't take care of my female companion."

Sakura sat back, a warm feeling creeping up inside of her from her stomach. She had such good friends, didn't she?

"Thanks, Sai. This was… amazing."

"No problem." His glance shifted from the bill, which had just returned with his change, to Sakura, who was smiling. Her eyes held a warm, happy expression, and her smile was soft.

He felt his cheeks grow warmer, and so he shifted his head down to hide his light blush.

Yes, this lunch was amazing.

**A/N: Long chapter. Anyway, I hope you liked. I'm working on chapter three. There will be MUCH more SasuSaku in that one, I promise! You'll just have to bear with me for a bit! sorry for any mistakes, very unbetaed. AND REVIEWS MAKE ME WRITE FASTER, I PROMISE!**


	3. Pink

**A/N: SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT! SCHOOL. ENOUGH SAID. It's been a death trap. AP Stat is hard, and AP Government is tiring, and filling out college applications is like death. Why must I be applying to so many schools?! GRRRRRRRRRR.**

**I hope you like it. Read and review, please?**

**Disclaimed: Don't own Naruto. Sorry. Borrowing the characters to write the story.**

At eight o'clock in the morning, a wide eyed Sakura arrived for work. She was an entire hour early, but it had never crossed her mind that the firm didn't even open until 9.

So, on her very first day of her new job, Sakura was stuck outside of the locked building.

"This is silly… there is _no one_ here? I mean, come on! Doesn't anyone show up early for work anymore?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Not if they can help it," a deep voice called from behind her. Sakura spun on her heel, only to come face to face with her new boss. Her green eyes took in every inch of his appearance, from his carefully styled hair to his dark, well fitted suit. She knew that he was tall, but it never registered in her mind that he was that much taller than her until now. Her eyes trailed up his body to his face, pale and perfectly shaped. He was, in simple terms, handsome. Incredibly handsome.

Sure, Sakura had seen him before. But she had never been this close, and she had never seen him without at least five women trailing him. She noticed, for the first time, that his eyes were not a dark brown like she had suspected, but an onyx color and right then, his dark eyes gleamed with curiosity. "You are my new secretary, I'm guessing."

Sakura nodded, still too awestruck to speak. She extended her right hand, and took a deep breath. "Sakura Haruno. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Uchiha."

Her new boss smirked as he took her hand, and Sakura could feel her heart begin to beat more urgently than before. "Hello, Miss Haruno. The pleasure is all mine. But if I may ask, why are you here so early?"

An awkward laugh escaped Sakura's lips. "Well, in my old job, getting there early meant that I could be of more help to more people." Sakura went into no further explanation, and Sasuke asked no more questions. He opened the door, and the two of them walked in silence to her office.

"It was nice meeting you, Miss Haruno," Sasuke said as he walked toward his door. "I will call you if I need your help with anything."

He was almost through the door to his office when Sakura called out his name. He turned, expectant, and looked at the pinkette. "Mr. Uchiha," she repeated, her voice calm. "You can call me Sakura instead of Miss Haruno. I'm not used to the formalities quite yet," she added with a small smile. In reality, she just didn't like the way that Miss Haruno sounded as compared to Dr. Haruno, but she knew she couldn't complain.

In response, Sasuke nodded. "Likewise, you can call me Sasuke, as long as you are not in the company of a client. We do have to keep up some appearances of being a law firm, Sakura," he added with a light smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. And with that, he shut the door separating them, leaving Sakura alone in her large office.

To pass the time until either a client or a friend arrived, Sakura decided to familiarize herself with the computer and the things scattered across her desk. The first thing she picked up was a note left by Mrs. Uchiha, with the heading HOW THINGS WORK. Sakura had to smile… from what she had seen of Sasuke's mother, the woman reminded her immensely of Ino. The brash, straight to the point style was obvious in this note.

"1.) Sakura, you will find all of Sasuke's appointments on both the computer and in the black notebook in the top right hand drawer of your desk. I would like you to make note in both places, because we have had incidents where one of Sasuke's many suitors hacked into the system and made an appointment. Likewise, when someone comes in, check both."

Sakura couldn't help but gape at the first note made. One of his _many_ suitors had hacked into the system to see him?

She was beginning to think that in this one job, she had bitten off much more than she could chew.

"2.) Phone calls are to be answered as such: "Uchiha Law Firm, Sasuke Uchiha's office" and screened. Only patch through people who have appointments… If they are making a new one, they do not need to talk to Sasuke. If they are his friends, they have his cell phone number. Speaking of cell phone… Sasuke should soon take you to the store to get you put on the company plan."

"3.) If Sasuke asks you to do something trivial for him, do it anyway. If it's planning a party, plan it. If he asks you to help him with something, help him. This is your job as his personal assistant, after all!"

"4.) Ask Hinata about any questions regarding where something is located. She is here to help you."

"5.) Remember, keep the ladies away from my little boy! I don't want him growing up too fast!"

At the last line, Sakura couldn't help but begin to laugh. This woman was putting a lot of responsibility on Sakura, and it seemed a little ridiculous. Sasuke had to grow up sometime, right?

'_And grow up he has,'_ Sakura thought, her mind wandering to her memory of his face. In an instant, however, she was berating herself for even thinking of her boss in such a way. This was just a mild attraction because he was a handsome man. There was no denying that. And she was a woman. Who was currently unattached to anyone in particular.

This was not good.

The phone rang, shaking Sakura abruptly out of her daydream.

"Uchiha Law Firm, Sasuke Uchiha's office," she said, reading from the paper in front of her.

"Oh my god you sound so official!" Ino squealed through the phone. "I had a break from a customer, and I just had to call. It's your first day of a new job! And working with Shikamaru, Kiba, AND Sai… You lucky girl!

"Ino."

The blonde continued without a pause. "These are some of the hottest bachelors out there! Who knows, maybe you could end up with one of them! I'm pretty sure that Sai has a thing for you."

Sakura sighed. "Ino, please. He does not. We're friends."

"And Sasuke Uchiha! Oh what I wouldn't give to be able to stare at him all day. I bet you have your eyes full with some candy. But then again, I am already 100 percent spoken for…" she let out a sad sigh. "But that does not mean I can't look, am I right? I need to come and visit you!"

As Ino babbled on and on, Sakura's eye twitched dangerously. She rubbed her neck, frustration and annoyance building.

"And not to mention Kiba Inuzuka… he's a little rowdy but that's what makes him sexy, you know? He's like a wild animal on the prowl, and I'd sure love to tame him." The thick, husky tone Ino was using was just a tad bit on the disturbing side.

"Ino," Sakura said, interrupting her spiel about Sakura's co-workers. "First things first, you _have_ a boyfriend. And secondly, I am at work. You should not call me at work. I have, oh you know, _work_ to do. So please, please don't call back unless there is an emergency, and even then you should use my cell phone…"

Ino's eye roll was almost audible. "Fine, whatever. I'll talk to you when you get home." Sakura heard her slight grumbles, and then the phone line went silent.

It took everything in Sakura's power not to slam her head against the desk. For some reason, she got the feeling that today was going to be a very long day.

Two hours later, Sakura was staring at her computer screen, trying to figure out a nice way to kick this girl out of her office.

See, she had stopped the girl from barging into Sasuke's office, and made her sit down in the comfy little chair across from her. Upon asking who she was, the girl simply said, "Yes."

"Yes, what? Your name is not yes."

"How would you know?" The young woman asked, her eyebrow cocked.

Resisting the urge to glare, Sakura took a leaf out of Sai's book and put on the best fake smile she could muster. "Well, you would need another name, at least, for me to be able to find out in Mr. Uchiha's very busy schedule. So, if you wouldn't mind telling me your name, I would be happy to search for it."

"My name Is Nahime Takahe. The last time I talked to Sasuke, he promised to schedule me in for a date sometime, so I should just be able to go in and see him! Why won't you let me into his office, you hag?"

On the inside, Sakura exploded with anger, her mind consumed with images of the woman, who sat with her obviously dyed blue hair and arms crossed over her very small bosom, dying. In many slow, painful ways.

"Mr. Uchiha is very busy with casework and needs his privacy. If you would like, I could call him up right now and see if he would be willing to talk to you."

As she was speaking, Sakura slid out her cell phone, and opened up a new message to Sai.

"_You can mimick Sasuke pretty well cant you?"_ She sent quickly.

Nahime nodded. "Yes, call him up right now. I want to talk to him! Once he hears my voice, he'll be sure to remember me!"

"_I guess. Why?"_

"_Im about to call you so please play along. I need your help. Will explain later."_

The former doctor reached forward, and dialed in the numbers to Sai's office phone.

"Mr. Uchiha? I hope I'm not interrupting you. I need to speak with you," Sakura said.

She heard Sai laugh from the other end. "Well, Sakura, I guess I can help you. Just say "Okay, Mr. Uchiha" when you need me to start on my stellar Sasuke impression."

"That sounds good, sir. Listen, I have someone here who needs to speak with you, okay Mr. Uchiha?"

"Yes, Miss Haruno," Sai replied, his voice almost an exact copy of the deep voice she had heard this morning.

Sakura handed the phone over to Nahime. The woman held the phone up to her ears. "Sasuke? Hi! It's me, Nahime! What do you mean, Nahime who? Remember at the party last week… I got you the drink? What do you mean you can't place me? I was in the black dress- Yes, the black dress that showed my cleavage… You still don't remember me? But you remember my dress! What do you mean you were just guessing? Sasuke, please! Okay, fine, I'll talk to you at the next party. Yes, I'll pretend this conversation never happened. Anything for you, Sasuke," she ended cutely, and handed the phone back to Sakura.

Sakura placed the phone back down, and looked at Nahime. "If that was all, I think your business here is finished," she said, giving the woman a stern look. Nahime screwed her face up, trying to mock Sakura, but gave up when the pinkette didn't react.

"Fine. But when I see Sasuke again, you better expect me to be coming in here a lot more because he will ask me out, I just know it. And you'll do well to remember to call me Miss Nahime when that happens." With an exaggerated 'hmph' and a sharp turn on her heel, Nahime marched out of the office.

"Miss Nahime," Sai said in greeting as she marched past. The woman ignored him, causing Sai to stifle a laugh. As soon as she was out of the room, Sai quirked an eyebrow at Sakura. "Could you please tell me why, now?"

Sakura grinned sheepishly. "Well, I didn't want to bother Sasuke…"

"So you bothered me?"

"And I didn't want him to say yes to her, either. His mother would kill me."

"What if I had told her to come in?"

"_I_ would have killed you, and then who knows what would have happened after that."

"Why would you have killed him?"

Sai and Sakura both turned their gaze to the door leading to Sasuke's office, where said Uchiha was leaning against the doorframe. He had an amused smirk on his face as Sakura's eyes grew wide and her cheeks turned slightly red. "Um, well, I… err…"

Sakura couldn't help but stare at her feet as she stumbled through an answer.

"She would have killed me if I had called her a hag today, even if she does look like one."

Suddenly, Sakura's green eyes were glaring a hole through Sai, who was just smiling like he had said the most perfectly normal thing in the world.

A low chuckle came from Sasuke. "Well, that would have been unfortunate if she killed you for lying about her appearance, Sai. As for you, Miss Haruno, I believe that we have an appointment together."

"I… We do?" Sakura sputtered.

"To get you a cell phone on the company plan. I have some spare time, and I would hate to be left in the office to relax. I might get too used to it. Sai, if you'll excuse us."

Another fake smile drifted over Sai's lips. "Of course I wouldn't mind, Sasuke. She is your secretary." With a wave, Sai walked out of the room, and Sasuke turned expectantly to Sakura.

"Shall we go, Sakura?" he asked quietly, a small smile playing on his lips.

She took a deep breath before answering; his laid back attitude and cool sexiness were really starting to affect her. _'This job is going to be hell if this continues,'_ she thought. "Of course, Sasuke. Let's go."

Twenty minutes and one surprisingly funny car ride later (they took Sasuke's car, of course. Sakura found herself immediately embarrassed when he asked if she would prefer to take her car, and which one it was), they found themselves inside a small cell phone store. The bell rang, and without looking up, a saleswoman called, "I'll be with you in just a minute."

Sakura made the move to sit down in one of the chairs, but Sasuke shook his head. "Come on. She'll be able to see us now."

"But she said-"

The playful smirk was back. "I know what she said. But this is how we get things done." He walked up to the counter, and the woman looked up. Her eyes grew wide, and she immediately began apologizing. "It's okay," he said, interrupting her. She stopped talking instantly. Sakura could tell that the girl had obviously never met him before, but knew who he was (and by the way she was tucking her hair behind her ear and smiling bashfully over her embarrassment) and liked what she saw.

Sasuke beckoned to Sakura, who jolted out of her jealous ('_Not jealous, just being prepared,'_ she told herself) thoughts and walked toward him.

"I need a new cell phone for her. Preferably something good, with a lot of memory, and in…" he looked her over. "Pink. Make sure the case is pink, to match her."

The woman nodded, and went into the back room to pull out some phones that were suitable for someone close to Sasuke Uchiha. She came back moments later with three phones, all cased in pink, and all amazing.

"Which one do you like better, Sakura?" Sasuke asked, gesturing to the phones.

She bit her lip thoughtfully as she looked them over. That one was a touch screen, but Sakura wasn't sure she'd be able to use it. She had this idea that she'd keep clicking the wrong button on accident. Or there was the large, bulky one that could be carried in a purse but would look horrible in the pocket, and lastly there was the slim, full keyboard one that looked like it wouldn't hold quite as much but it would be more stylish.

"I… I'm not sure. I wouldn't be able to use the touch screen very well," she said, and immediately that one was put down, "so I'm stuck between the bulky one with a lot of memory or the cute one with not so much."

"Let's go with the cute one, then, since you like it so much," he said, picking the slim one out of the girl's hands. "I'd like this phone added to the company plan, a new number, with all the essentials: Unlimited talk, text, internet, etc. She can't have anything less."

The saleswoman nodded, and left to go make up the new plan.

Sakura bit her lip softly. It was an old habit from her doctoring days (okay, so not that long ago) that she had thought she got over but apparently old habits die hard. "Sasuke, I have an… um… question, for you," she said, her voice shaking slightly.

"Yes?" he asked, he attention drawn away from the girl at the computer back to her. "What is it, Sakura?"

"Earlier, when you said to make the case pink… Why did you say that?"

He looked slightly taken aback at her question. "Do you not like the color pink?" he asked.

Sakura threw her hands up defensively. "It's not that! I like pink a lot, actually. It's just you said it matched me, and I was wondering what you meant. Unless you were just going with the obvious…" she trailed off, her eyes finding a place on the floor to stick to. It was ridiculous how much he was affecting her usually strong and take charge demeanor just by being cute.

"The obvious aside," Sasuke said, smirking, "I think pink suits you very well. It's a very happy color, but it's more than just that. When people get angry, their faces are pink. When someone has been crying, their eyes are a reddish pink. Pink is… an emotional color, and you seem like a very emotional person."

Sakura's eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter with surprise and she blushed slightly. "I'm not really… that emotional…" she said, knowing it was a complete lie.

Sasuke laughed. "Oh really? I think you're more emotional than you let on, Miss Haruno. And add another thing to that list… when you blush, your cheeks are more pink than red. I seemed to have hit the nail right on the head when I said it matched you, huh?"

The saleswoman came back, and handed Sakura her new phone. Sasuke turned to pay for the phone like nothing had happened, but Sakura's heart was beating fast, and her hand was shaking slightly. She looked down at the phone in her hand to avoid staring at something like Sasuke's face. Finally, after what seemed like a year, they were walking out of the building, and back to his car. Sasuke walked with Sakura, and opened her door, causing her to stammer a thanks.

"Interesting," Sasuke muttered as she jumped in the car.

Sakura resisted the urge to groan and repeatedly slap her forehead.

She was going to need to get a grip on herself.

Sasuke was cute, but she did not like him. Heck, she barely even knew him. She could overcome his sex appeal, and be his secretary. It was her new goal. She could do it.

_Yeah, right._

**A/N: Yet again, sorry for the late chapter. You could review if you liked it, yeah? I actually had this open on MS Word for a long time, but I had hit a dead end and couldn't write. And then I got distracted by school. Aie. I hope you guys don't mind waiting… it might be two weeks before the next chapter. I actually have it started, and a whole scene was written before I started on this one, but I decided showing you Sakura's first day and how her attraction begins would be so much better. So so much better. Much love, **

**Rai.**


	4. I'm the Boss Tonight

**A/N: I APOLOGIZE. It's only been… three months? I really am sorry everyone! I just got really behind! Luckily, I am 100% done with college applications and I have been accepted into 2 of them! Now I'm only waiting on one more…**

**Read and review, please? A comment will help me update faster!**

"Here's your coffee, sir," Sakura said, giving the beige cup to her boss, who looked up at her with a grateful grin as he took the cup. His eyes moved quickly from her face back down to the paper he was holding.

"What's on the agenda for today, Miss Haruno?" Sasuke asked, not taking his eyes off the case.

Sakura looked down at the pink cell phone. "Well, you have a meeting today at 10:15, a client coming in tomorrow at 1 o'clock, and you have to be in court the day after tomorrow. That's for the client coming at one. Oh, and Naruto wants to have dinner with you, and he says that 'this time he'll beat you.' Not sure what it means."

Sasuke nodded. "He wants to play laser tag. About the case… Yeah, I've been looking at their case all day, and I can't find one issue to fight on. However, it's my mom's friend, so I couldn't say no." His head fell into his hands, and his fingers ran through his hair. It was unusual for Sasuke to get this frustrated about anything, Sakura knew that. And even more unusual was the fact he was telling her about it.

'_He must really be stressed about this case,'_ she thought, frowning.

He took another sip of the coffee. "I just can't figure it out, Sakura," Sasuke said. "Here, I'm going to give you this. Keep it out of my sight, Miss Haruno." He handed the file to her, and Sakura took that as her dismissal.

"Goodbye, Mr. Uchiha," she said happily.

"Goodbye, Miss Haruno."

Sakura slipped out of his office and settled back into her seat, only to have the phone ring. "Uchiha Law Firm, Sasuke Uchiha's office," she answered, the long introduction rolling easily off her tongue.

"Yes, I am one of Mr. Uchiha's clients and I was wondering if you could let me talk to him about the, um, case."

The high pitched voice immediately set off Sakura's warning bells. This was the third time today someone had made a call like this… Did they think that Sakura was stupid?

Sakura cleared her throat. "What is your name? I will run you through the book to see when your appointment is, and then you can come in on your scheduled date, or I can see if an earlier appointment is available. Mr. Uchiha is a very busy man, and while we value our clients greatly, he can't speak to everyone at the same time."

"My… name? No, I'm sure that Mr. Uchiha knows that I need to call him! Just put me through?"

"Well, ma'am, I will need your name to put you through anyway. Mr. Uchiha needs to know who he is talking to."

"I am a personal friend, he will know my voice."

"If you are a personal friend, you will know that one, he has a cell phone, and two, he does not take personal calls at work. Now, your name, so I can run it through the database?"

A depressed sigh came from the other end. "Never mind. I'll call him later, I, um, have to go. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, ma'am."

The line went dead, and Sakura hung up the phone. It was hard to believe how much crap she had to put up with every day just to stop crazy suitors from bothering Sasuke. Not to mention the other secretarial work she had to do, like getting lunch and coffee and picking up dry cleaning and paying bills and buying gifts and keeping files out of sight!

Upon remembering, a pair of green eyes found themselves attached to the file Sasuke was so frustrated with.

"One little peek won't matter," she said, looking at it. "Sasuke is stressed, I just want to see why…" With a quick glance to all three doors, Sakura opened the file. She was immediately greeted with papers, filled with legal terms, witness statements, and… an accusation of malpractice?

The case immediately sparked her interest; she knew her way around the medical terms that, according to his notes, have completely baffled her boss. Did he not realize he had a medical doctor sitting in the room right before his, who knew what all of these things meant?

Sakura read the papers intently, making notes of her own on a separate sheet of paper.

"_Well of course the doctor Sasuke hired would say there was no malpractice, those two are old friends! But to let a friendship bypass his dignity as a doctor…."_ Sakura thought, scribbling furiously. And there's where the evidence of malpractice shows itself, obvious to a trained eye, but no big deal to anyone else! It was easy to see how Sasuke missed it!

The note taking was interrupted by another phone call, this time from an actual client. Sakura patched them through, and went on reading.

Of course, she would never give him these notes. To think that she broke the confidentiality between the lawyer and his client… She wouldn't put Sasuke under this kind of scrutiny! But she could also drop hints from her notes sheet until he either realized she was a doctor or asked her for help.

"If it's to help him, I'll do it!" she said, the inner visualization of herself grinning and pumping its fist into the air. But duty called, and Sakura was pulled away many times throughout the day before she could give Sasuke his file back. At the end of her work day, she had finished, but Sasuke was still in his office working.

She didn't want to disturb him by barging in, so she went to the next best solution. "Hey, Sai, could you give this to Sasuke for me? I know that you usually stay late, and I want to make sure this gets to him. It's a case that he's working on."

"Sure, no problem!" Sai said, faking kindness. Sakura, too tired from the day, took no notice of his fake demeanor, and started for home. She couldn't wait to eat dinner and crack on one of those books she had picked up from the library yesterday.

The pinkette climbed into her old car, and sighed. She reached into her purse

Sakura didn't take her eyes off of the page as she heard the door to the apartment open. It was nothing big, just Ino coming home from her hard day at work.

"Hey, forehead, you'll never believe what happened today at the shop," the blonde called as she rummaged through the fridge, looking for just the perfect meal of leftovers.

"What?" Sakura called, still reading her book. She had just reached the part where Colleen, the heroine, was being kidnapped, and her boyfriend, a rich billionaire, was coming to rescue her. Sakura's mind swam with images of Sasuke coming after her after a group of thugs stole her away from the parking lot at work…

"Some guy comes in a big hurry, going on about how he totally forgot it was his anniversary and he needed something beautiful for his girlfriend. Well, as I'm rolling my eyes and trying to figure out what her favorite flower is," Ino said, sitting down at the small table with her food, "this guy has the nerve to start _hitting on me!_ I mean, can you believe it?"

Sasuke would bust in to their hide out, angry, but sexy looking, and start attacking these guys with all the martial arts he knows. Once he got through with them, he would see Sakura, tied up in a chair, and all the viciousness would fade, to be replaced by worry. "Are you hurt?" he'd ask, untying her. "No," she would reply, looking into his eyes. "I'm so glad you came, though," she would say, looking down at the floor. He would tip her chin up, and say "I'll always come for you," and then they'd kiss.

Sakura let out a loud sigh, her mind drawn away from the book and into her own fantasy.

"Here he is, in a load of trouble for forgetting his… Why are you sighing?" Ino asked, eyeing her best friend suspiciously.

Said best friend just blushed slightly, and looked at Ino. "Because of the ridiculousness of this man! I mean, he was in trouble already and he starts to hit on you. He's digging himself into a hole, that boy."

Ino, not convinced, walked over to where Sakura's stack of newly borrowed library books was, and smiled broadly. "So, who is it?"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"The guy you like! Is it Sai? I mean, come on, finally! Or it is your new boss Sasuke?"

"What makes you think I like someone?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "Sakura, Sakura, Sakura," she said, shaking her head. "I have been your best friend for years. I know that whenever you get into something, you read about it. When you were going through medical school, you read all medical books-"

"That was because they were required, pig!" Sakura interrupted.

"When you went through that mythology stage during college, you read hundreds of books about ancient Greece and all those Gods. When you thought you wanted to be a detective, you watched so many TV shows and read so many murder mysteries I thought _you _were going to kill _me_ just to try it out. And when Lee-"

Sakura narrowed her eyes. "Don't even talk about him," she said, her voice just menacing enough to tell Ino she most certainly had not gotten over the guilt.

"The point is… when you go through a stage, you read books about it. Like when you liked Shikamaru, you read a ton of romance novels. And now, here they are again… So back to my question: Who is it?"

Sakura's face turned red. Ino had her beat. Her best friend knew her too well. "It's… it's…"

"Oh come on, just tell me!"

"It's Sasuke, okay?" Sakura's gaze dropped to the floor as Ino's grin grew larger. It was strange to admit to someone, finally, that she had a crush. On her boss. Who was a playboy. And had a lot of girls chasing after him. Oh geeze, she was hopeless.

Ino threw her head back and laughed. "Oh my god, that is fantastic! You've been working for him for like, what, a month or so now, and you already have a thing for him! Well, I could expect as much, he's got those devilishly handsome looks. And people say he can really kiss, but I doubt it."

"Who did you hear that from?" Sakura shot back, her mind burning with images of girls kissing Sasuke.

"Oh, you remember Temari, the girl who was two years ahead of us in college? Yeah, well I still go drinking with her, and she was talking about it. She claims to have made out with Sasuke once, but I doubt it's true. From what I hear, Sasuke only kisses girls who he is serious about. He'll flirt with girls, which earns him the title of playboy, but he never kisses them."

Sakura raised her eyebrow at her friend. "You believe that? He only kisses girls he's serious about?"

The blonde shrugged, taking a small bite of dinner. "Yeah," she said after she swallowed. "If you think about it, all the girls that claim to have kissed him all tell different stories. The thing about most guys is that they tend, once they have their first kiss, to kiss in the same way. Like, some will always make out with a girl first or maybe kiss her on the forehead before he kissed her on the mouth. With Sasuke, its crazy stories, and you can never believe that someone has made out with that many girls and hasn't gotten mouth diseases."

"I guess you have a point there, Ino-pig," Sakura said. "He's not such a playboy, after all."

"Even if he was, I'm sure you could tame him," Ino said, winking at her pink haired friend.

Sakura blushed furiously, mumbling an answer. "I… but what… t-t-tame? I th-think…"

The Yamanaka girl just laughed. "Oh, come on, you know that's what you want. Seriously, Sakura, if you like him, you should go for him! Imagine that, a no name secretary from the middle class bagging an Uchiha boy. You would be a legend!"

"I'm not so sure about that," Sakura replied, rolling her eyes. "And why did you have to drag the working class thing in there? So what if my parents didn't make as much as his did, we were still pretty well off."

"Yeah, but you weren't one of the top families, Sakura. Remember? The Hyuuga's and the Uchiha's are the best of the best, then come the Uzumaki's, the Inuzuka's, and the Nara's. After that, no one really cares anymore. Well, there are a few families who are close to being in there, such as mine, Chouji's, the Aburames, and a couple other families. But you… Who's ever heard of a Haruno before you? But that's just it… I think it would be just like Sasuke to go for someone like you. Someone smart and pretty and strong. I could see him going all out for you."

"I know, I know," Sakura murmured, looking down at the book in her hands. "I really hope he does- What am I saying? He's my boss, Ino, I can't have a relationship with him."

"Doesn't mean he's going to be your boss forever," Ino countered with a smile. "For all you know, he could fire you someday soon."

"Why would I want that?"

Ino shrugged. "So you can marry him, I don't know! You're the one with the boss/secretary relationship problem."

Sakura picked her book up from the table and stood up. "How can you not have a problem with it, pig? It could totally compromise the workday! I mean, what if the boss broke up with the secretary and then they filed a harassment claim?"

Ino dismissed this problem with a wave of her hand. "Come on, forehead, you're thinking too much into this! If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. That's the description of true love, right? The soul finding its counterpart in another person or something like that, I can't really remember."

"Whatever, I'm going to go read in my bedroom. And you better not tell anyone about this, Ino, especially not Shikamaru! He may be our friend, but he doesn't need to know about this!"

"Awww, but Shikamaru would love to hear about you trying to put the moves on Sasuke! You know how much he loves to pick on you, and now that you work together, it will just be icing on the cake!"

Sakura slammed the door to her bedroom, but still could not drown out the loud laughter echoing from the living room.

She looked back down at the book in her hand, the images of Sasuke coming to rescue her still fresh in her mind. _'Could he really ever like someone like me? I mean, Ino was right,"_ Sakura though to herself, changing into her pajamas. _"I am nothing but a working class girl to his high and might wealthy Konoha blue blood status. He is like a prince around here, more important than I will ever be, and the object of almost every girl's affection. He can't like me..."_

With that last though crossing her mind, Sakura yawned and snuggled in with the covers. "Who cares if he likes me or not," she muttered, her voice tired sounding, "it's not like I was looking for a boyfriend anyway."

----------------

Two hours later, Sasuke walked out of his office, tired from a long day's work. Sakura had gone home, as had most of the staff. He also had to cancel and reschedule his dinner and game with Naruto, even though he needed a good stress reliever. He felt like the work load from his clients had been building up, and each one of them just kept getting more and more ridiculous. He wished his mother wouldn't send every little tiff his way.

"Speaking of ridiculous, I wonder where Sakura put that file she was supposed to give me?" Sasuke wondered aloud, his face breaking into a grin despite himself. He wouldn't doubt that she had accidentally taken it home, and was probably flipping out about having the contraband file.

"I have it here, she wanted me to give it to you," a voice said, drifting from the doorway.

Sasuke looked up from Sakura's desk to see Sai standing in the doorway, smiling. "Hey, Sai," Sasuke said as he moved over to his colleague and took the file from his hands. "How are you?"

"Doing quite well, all things considered," Sai said.

Sasuke flipped open the casefile, and was surprised to see two pages crammed full of notes in neat, cramped handwriting. At first he thought that Sakura has left something she was working on in the file, but he soon realized that these words were pertaining to the case itself. Everything she had written in here was evidence that could help him win the case.

"How did she…?" Sasuke trailed off, reading the small notes. The doctor he hired was a friend of the doctor the lawsuit was filed against?

"She's a doctor, you know. Things like this probably excite her," Sai said.

Sasuke looked up at the strange, smiling man. "You read the notes and the case, then?"

"Naturally."

"What do you think?"

Sai moved forward, stopping a few feet in front of Sasuke, and then shrugged. "The evidence she gives could definitely help you win the case. She knows what she is talking about. The evidence of malpractice is hard to find, but boy did she find it."

"I didn't ask her to do this," Sasuke said.

"She did it anyway," Sai answered. "That's the type of person she is. Sakura goes above and beyond for her friends, her coworkers, her boss. She wants to make sure that everyone else is running smoothly and that they are happy. She loves making people happy, and she figured that by helping you solve this case- which seemed to be a huge strain on you, by the way- she could help."

Sasuke looked at Sai, who had a very small, very genuine smile on his face. The Uchiha was taken aback, for it was something he had never seen; usually, Sai had a creepy, fake smile plastered on his face. But something about Sakura made Sai light up on the inside.

_They must be really good friends,_ Sasuke thought.

With a small wave, Sai left Sasuke in the office to head home. Sasuke mulled over the friendship between Sai and Sakura ('_They are just friends… Right? Wait, why the hell does it even matter? She's my secretary…'_) and then his mind slowly started to drift. His onyx eyes landed on the file in his hand, and the notes Sakura had made poking out or it.

"That was nice of her," Sasuke mumbled, the grin coming back. He was glad his mother had chosen this one as his secretary, Sakura was good. "I'll have to thank her in the morning." And with a large yawn, Sasuke put the file into his briefcase and headed home.

**A/N: Disclaimed, I own nothing but the idea. ANYWAY, I am yet again deeply sorry for the long time it took me to update and the relatively short length of this chapter. It's been a very, very stressful three months and I just couldn't find the time to sit down and update with all the homework and college applications and papers and projects… GAH. Luckily we got a decent break… **


	5. One Little Date

**A/N: I would make excuses, but the only thing that kept me from updating was writers block, school, and my own laziness. I apologize profusely, and give you a very long chapter to try and make up for the long wait. I hope you all haven't abandoned me yet, and if you have, then you are probably not reading this. I hope the next update will come quickly, but I can make no promises at his point. I am sorry, guys! **

**Read and review, please?**

Sakura had been at her desk for half an hour now and there was still no sign of her boss. Sure, he had probably been working late last night- after all, she had left him here on his own at about 7 or 8 last night- but this was bordering on ridiculous.

He had a client meeting in two hours, and it seemed like a pretty big case. At eleven, the client would wander in, and Sakura would have nothing to tell her, except that her boss had mysteriously gone missing. Who knows where he was?

Sasuke could have been in a wreck this morning! Or worse, another girl had kidnapped him and they were holding him hostage at this very moment, stripping him of all of his clothes! Sakura could just imagine the blonde haired voluptuous girl who was tearing at his dark, perfect suit and messing up his immaculately styled hair with her disgusting hands. He would be tarnished forever, and then Mrs. Uchiha would come storming into the office any second, blaming Sakura for all sorts of things.

A small buzzing noise brought her attention to Sakura's new phone. A new text message… From Sasuke.

_Running late. be in the office soon. Don't worry about getting me breakfast when I arrive, I've already got it._

Sakura sighed in relief, the thoughts of Sasuke being kidnapped having been wiped from her memory. A smile touched her face as she began to write down Sasuke's agenda for today, and some of the upcoming events of the week that he needed to pay attention to.

"S-Sakura?" The pinkette looked up to see Hinata poking her head through the adjoining door which led to Mr. Hyuuga's office.

"Yes, Hinata?"

"I need you to come in here for a second, okay? There is, uh, a problem with the, um, computer?" She said with her eyes trained on the floor. To anyone else, something like this would have been suspicious, but to Sakura, it was just another way to help someone.

"Okay, I'm coming!" Sakura jumped up, and made her way quickly across the room. The more she stayed here, the smaller the room seemed. One day it might even feel like a cramped office space instead of a huge, sprawling room. Maybe.

The pair walked into Hinata's office, and stopped just behind her desk. "See? The screen is just black. No matter what I do to it, it just doesn't-"

"Hinata, all you had to do was push this little button. See? The green light is on now, and voila… your monitor is on as well." Hinata thanked Sakura quietly for helping her, and Sakura began to walk back into her office, but she was stopped by another thought. "I guess I am done here, unless there is a reason you faked computer problems?"

A small embarrassed squeak (or what sounded like a squeak to Sakura) came from the Hyuuga. "F-Faked computer p-problems? N-No…"

"Hinata," Sakura said, raising her left eyebrow. "Are you sure?"

"I wanted to talk to you," Hinata said, still not meeting Sakura's eye. "I n-needed someone to talk to a-about t-this. I don't h-have many friends, especially girl friends, s-so I didn't know who to ask. I work too m-much and then h-have to deal with f-family gatherings to really t-talk to people…" The woman trailed off, her gaze focused intently on her thumbs, which were fighting a war against each other.

Sakura walked back over to Hinata, and put her hand on her shoulder. "About what, Hinata? What do you need to talk about?" Sakura had somehow slipped into doctor mode, and was being super polite with her "patient".

Hinata met Sakura's gaze for the first time, and the pinkette was able to distinguish a heavy blush on her cheeks, even from the downward angle.

"Mr. Inuzuka… I mean, Kiba- No, Mr. Inuzuka, I guess- asked me to dinner tonight. I just don't know if I should go. I mean, we are old friends, and he is my boss in a w-way, so I just don't know if it would be appropriate to… go."

A smile crossed Sakura's face. "Well, technically, Mr. Inuzuka is not your boss- Mr. Hyuuga is. And it's not like you are going to be working in this position forever, Hinata, right? So you can't ruin the rest of your life because you're afraid of dating an old friend of yours whom, I would guess by the blushing, you do like."

If it were possible, Hinata's cheeks flamed to a new intensity of reddish pink. "I-I… I mean, it's not that… But of course… I…" the girl stuttered with her eyes trained still on the ground.

"I just don't know how to prepare," Hinata admitted. "I haven't been on many dates, and a lot of them, my father set up. Most of the others were solely interested in the fortune I would inherit after my dad dies. This is one of the few dates that I actually… well, that I want to be prepared for," she finished. "And I need help."

Sakura laughed, making Hinata finally look at her face in embarrassment.

"Am I really that… lame?" Hinata asked.

"No, it's just we all have those problems, and you're acting like it's the end of the world. Geeze, Hinata, I think Mr. Inuzuka is going to think you're quite beautiful, no matter what. But if you would like some help, you could come over to my apartment after work. My friend Ino would just die to do a makeover on someone."

Again, Hinata flushed in embarrassment. "Is there a ch-chance you could… come over to my house? It's just that all of my clothes and e-everything…"

"Of course! That makes perfect sense, Hinata," Sakura said, a smile settling down on her face. Hinata beamed, and wrote down directions from the office to her house. As Sakura walked out the door, she couldn't help but feel this reminded her of high school. That just goes to show how inexperienced Hinata was with men.

Sakura shut the door, and, upon seeing her desk, immediately froze. A large bouquet sat on top of it; it was beautiful. The soft purples and pink flowers meshed perfectly with the yellow daises. Sakura walked forward, and noticed a small blue card perched among the flowers.

_Thank you for the notes._

_Sasuke_

She stared at the card for just a second longer, and then moved her eyes to the slightly open door of her boss. With a small gulp, she moved forward, toward it. She needed to talk to him anyway, brief him on events.

"What is on our agenda for today, Miss Haruno?"

"Well, Mr. Uchiha," she said, her voice professional even though her mind was searing with questions. What notes? Surely he didn't mean the ones she made about the case yesterday? "You have two clients coming in today. One is a dear friend of your mother's, and the other is just a regular client. Two young ladies called to try and make lunch plans with you, but I have refused both." At this, Sasuke looked up.

"Ah, that's good. I have plans for lunch already."

"As I thought. Again, you have court tomorrow, so I have cleared your schedule for the whole day. I have some time scheduled after lunch were I am to come in and remind you to look at the case once more, since you seemed to be having such trouble with it. You have a gala dinner tomorrow night as well, I hope you won't be too stressed after your first day in court. I can still cancel if you'd like...?"

"No, I'd still like to go. I don't think my day in court will be too stressful. I've built up quite the good defense."

"That's great," Sakura said. "Well, you registered for plus one, so you might need to find a date, but I doubt that will be too hard for you. Also, I'm going to need your dinner order since I know you are going to eat here, as usual. Seriously, Sasuke, when do you find the time to sleep?"

The Uchiha just took a sip of his coffee, watching as his assistant stared down at him. The more he stared, though, the more nervous she looked, and her face began to tinge red.

"Um, did I miss anything?"

"No, nothing at all," he said. "Or at least, nothing that I know of. Anyway, I would just like to thank you, again, Sakura; those notes were amazing."

Her eyes widened, even though she had figured out that it was her notes on his case that he had found. "You weren't supposed to see those," she said, looking at the floor. "I… I didn't want to break the confidentiality between client and lawyer. I know it's a sacred bond between doctor and patient…"

"It's fine. Your notes were invaluable, Sakura. You picked up on things even other doctors I asked couldn't see. Which is why I bought you the thank you flowers."

"Yes, thank you for those. They were lovely," Sakura said with the tiniest hint of a blush still remaining on her cheek.

Sasuke smirked. "And imagine my surprise when I walked into your office and my secretary was missing. How am I supposed to ask you if you are busy for lunch if you are off doing something else?"

"I'm so sorry! I was just trying to- Ask me to lunch?" Sakura said, stopping her ramble. "If you don't mind me asking, I thought you had plans?"

"Yes, with you." The smirk was still on his face as he leaned back in his chair. He was enjoying this. "I want to repay you for being an asset to my company, in more ways than one."

"I… I mean… Well, yes. Lunch would be lovely. Thank you, Mr. Uchiha," Sakura said, her mind still reeling from the surprise. Lunch with _Sasuke?_ Wow.

"No, thank _you_, Miss Haruno."

The smirk was still visible on his face as Sakura turned and walked out of the room. She sat down at her desk, the flowers a visible reminder of what had just happened in the room back there. Sasuke had asked her, Sakura Haruno, out on a lunch date.

No, not _date_, she thought. Date would suggest too many untrue things in her mind, and Ino's as well. It was more of a lunch engagement.

Engagement was not the right word either, the pinkette decided. A lunch… meeting. It was just lunch. A meeting, for lunch. Yes, that would do just perfectly.

The buzzing of her cell phone reminded Sakura that yes, she was in a work place, and yes, she would need to work. The caller ID read Ino, which didn't surprise her in the least. Ino had a knack of calling when something big happened, even if she didn't know it.

A sigh escaped Sakura's lips as she hit the green send button, answering the call from her best friend.

"Hey, what's up, buttercup?"

"Ino, yet again, just because you're bored doesn't mean you can call me on my cell phone," Sakura reminded her.

"That's such a nice way to greet your best friend in the whole wide world, who, by the way, has been working hard all day and is taking a well deserved fifteen minute break to call you!" Sakura could almost visualize the fake pout forming on Ino's face.

"Well, I have some work that I need-"

"Like what, staring down your boss?" Ino interrupted. "You can wait to oogle Sasuke, because I have some very, very exciting news for you! You will never believe it! I got a call from Shikamaru, like, five minutes ago at most. He's inviting me to some big dinner tomorrow night! A bunch of Konoha's most important people will be there, and he's taking me!"

Sakura smiled despite herself. "That's great, Ino! I knew Shikamaru would ask you, it was-"

Again, Ino interrupted. "You knew? That's a total lie! You know he never wants to go to these things and I have to force him into going! He always says that these things are too troublesome. But he asked me on his own initiative this time!"

The door to her office opened, and Sai walked in. He kept quiet , and Sakura smiled at him quickly to acknowledge him before turning her attention back to the phone. "I still expected it, even if you are amazed! Oh, and Ino, before I forget! I'm going to pick you up as soon as I get off work; we are going over to a, um, a friend's house to help her prepare for a date, okay? Now, I am going to hang up the phone."

"Have fun working, forehead!" With a click, the line went dead.

Sakura turned her attention to the man standing in her office with a smile on his face. "So, I take it Miss Yamanaka told you the news?"

"Ah, so Shikamaru has been spreading it around the office, hm?"

Sai shook his head. "You can tell by the way he looks that he's a bit happier than usual, and judging by your phone conversation with Ino and the use of the word 'troublesome', I would assume he asked her to the dinner tomorrow night."

"You should have been a detective or something, Sai. Your powers of deduction amaze me."

"It's nothing," he said. "If I didn't have the gala on my mind, I probably wouldn't have made the connection."

Sakura quirked an eyebrow at him. "And why are you thinking so intently about this dinner, Sai?"

"Well, I was actually going to ask you to be my date tomorrow night, unless you have other arrangements."

She sat a little straighter, and blinked in surprise. She knew that she was usually Sai's date for these things, but somehow it hadn't even crossed her mind that he might ask her. "Actually, Sai, I don't know if I'm going to go. Since Ino would be out of the house, it seemed like a nice time to have a night to myself. I'm sorry."

A fake smile appeared on her friend's lips. "It's nothing to worry about, Sakura. Just because I am required to go doesn't mean you are, and a night off sounds much more enjoyable than coming to another dinner with rich clients."

"I'm still sorry, Sai. Listen, if I change my mind, you'll be the first to know, okay?"

"Of course." He waved, and walked out of the room.

Sakura bit her lip as her friend walked out of the office. She felt bad for rejecting him, even though he was just a friend. Her mind flashed, involuntarily, to someone else.

"_Please, Sakura? Just one date; I am not asking too much of you, I hope." His eyes were sparking, and his teeth gleamed from the overhead lights. _

"_I'm sorry, but you know I have to work tonight. Maybe later."_

Tears slid down her cheeks at the memory, and Sakura fought to keep more from bubbling up. She had hoped that by escaping her job as a doctor, she could escape that part of her life. But she would not be so lucky. Even though he was just another admirer whom she didn't like, he still impacted her life more than many of her boyfriends.

Life was unfair.

To get her mind off of him, Sakura went back to work, writing up memos and making phone calls. Time passed quickly for the secretary, and before she knew it, Sasuke was walking out of his office.

"Are you ready to go, Miss Haruno?"

Sakura turned, surprised, and then looked back at the time. _Wow. Twelve Thirty already?_ But she just nodded, and grabbed her purse from under her desk.

"Did you decide where to go, by any chance?"

"I didn't know I was supposed to, Mr. Uchiha," Sakura said, confused.

Sasuke smirked. "Well, since I am treating you out to lunch, I thought it would be obvious that I was letting you pick the place as well, Miss Haruno," Sasuke retorted.

Usually, when Sai took her out to lunch, he would pick the restaurant. She wasn't used to having a say in where she went. "Okay," Sakura said. "I know just the place we should go."

The restaurant that she had chosen was crowded with people on their lunch breaks as well. The frazzled hostess seated the pair speedily, reciting a swift, "Enjoy your meal!" before running off. Sakura smiled at her boss, who was looking around at the crowd with surprise.

"Is it usually like this?"

"Yeah. It's a pretty popular place, especially for people eating lunch. I mean, it's quick but good."

A smirk appeared over Sasuke's face. "Right. Well, I'm sure many people like it to be quick and good. Their food, I mean."

'_He is my boss. I must refrain from getting sarcastic with him. He is my boss,'_ Sakura repeated in her head. Gorgeous he may be, but that didn't mean he wasn't somewhat of an asshole. A cocky, perverted, gorgeous asshole.

"Well, it's not like you would know about anything fast and pleasurable service, right Mr. Uchiha? You always go to restaurants where it takes a long time for something that never quite fills your appetite."

There goes her self-control.

Sasuke chuckled, a response Sakura was not expecting. "Touché, Sakura." He picked up his menu once more, and looked it over. "So, Miss Haruno, what do you think you are getting?"

Sakura looked back over the menu herself. "Probably a garden salad and water. What do you think you're going to get, Mr. Uchiha?"

"A turkey bacon club with no egg and added mustard as usual, Mr. Uchiha?" Sakura looked up to see the waitress standing next to Sasuke, smiling. "And a tea, correct sir?"

"That would be right. And Miss Haruto will have a side salad and a water," Sasuke answered her. The waitress walked away, and Sakura stared at Sasuke, amazed and confused.

"You've been here before?"

The waitress brought their drinks back in a flash, and Sasuke picked up his iced tea. "I didn't say that," he answered, taking a sip. "But you have to admit, they make the best tea."

Sakura just looked at him. "They knew what you wanted to order, Sasuke. Right down to your dislike of egg with turkey. You had to have been here before!"

"Not necessarily. I usually just call in an order to this place and have them deliver to the office. I'm surprised you never noticed their logo on the bag, if you eat here so often with all the other people on their lunch break."

"That would explain why you were surprised by the crowds," Sakura reasoned. "But you don't have to be so snide about it," she said with a grin.

Sasuke chuckled. "I don't recall being "snide", Miss Haruno."

"Of course you don't, Mr. Uchiha. It seems to be ingrained into your entire being," she joked, her eyes twinkling.

Sasuke was slightly taken aback by the sight of her; he hadn't seen her smile like that while she was at work. It was a welcome change, no doubt, and he couldn't help but decide that he found the joking side of her pleasing.

"So anyway, you like the food from the restaurant. How about the décor? The ambiance?" she asked. "Is it to the liking of the great Sasuke Uchiha?" Sakura was surprised that it was so easy to joke with Sasuke, but he didn't seem to take too much seriously.

Sasuke looked around, pretending to be super interested in every print that adorned the walls. "Hmmm, that's a hard call to make," he said, still pretending to be in serious thought. "I mean, it is rather crowded in here."

"That is true," she said as her chair was slightly bumped by a man making his way to the exit.

"But all in all, I think I like it very much. It's easier just to get the food delivered, but I don't think it would hurt to visit the shop every once in a while. My mother has done such a wonderful job making it look ordinary," Sasuke said, turning his attention back to the slightly open mouthed Sakura.

"Your mother… owns this restaurant?"

Sasuked nodded nonchalantly. "She owns a lot of things. I think she enjoys owning popular places that appeal to a variety of people."

In a few minutes, their meal came, and the conversation turned from Sasuke to Sakura, and how she became so versed in medical knowledge.

"So why did you leave your last job, anyway? Were you fired?" Sasuke asked, interest coloring his voice.

Sakura shook her head. "No, I wasn't fired. Do you think your mother would have hired me if I was fired from a hospital? I left because of… personal reasons," Sakura said, hoping that would be enough to satiate Sasuke.

But luck was not on her side.

"What kind of personal reasons? Was it a doctor you didn't get along with?"

Sakura quirked her eyebrow. "Why do many questions, Mr. Uchiha?"

"I think I should know what kind of people I employ," he reasoned, and Sakura knew that she would have to agree. If she was going to hire a new doctor to work under her, she would want to know every last detail of why they quit their last job.

Sakura concentrated on the last remaining pieces of her salad as she spoke. "There were parts of my job that I couldn't deal with. It's one thing when a perfect stranger needs your help and you can't save them. It's something different entirely when you know the person."

Sasuke stared in silence, astounded by what he had heard. She had to watch someone she knew suffer? "I'm sorry, Sakura," he said, and then he let the subject drop.

It took a few more minutes of near silence for the conversation to recover. They moved past the subject of her past job to Ino, and then toward Ino's excitement over the dinner tomorrow night.

Sasuke nodded. "Miss Yamanaka is correct, though. Sikamaru hardly ever comes to these things; if it wasn't more a lot of persistence on Naruto's part, he probably would have skipped this dinner entirely. If he wasn't such a brilliant man, I'd have fired him for his laziness by now," Sasuke said. "That's one thing Naruto is good for, though. He can get almost anyone to do anything out of sheer persistence."

Sakura laughed, feeling the weight that had redropped itself on her shoulders when Sasuke pressed her about her job lift slightly.

"Speaking of the dinner tomorrow night, Miss Haruno…"

Sakura stopped laughing, and looked at him. "Yes, Mr. Uchiha? Do you need me to call someone about a date?" she asked, switching from relaxed back to professional.

Sasuke shook his head. "No, that won't be necessary. I was wondering if you would like to come with me, instead?"

"I..." Sakura started, her mind going blank for a second. Once she recovered, her denial of Sai earlier had completely slipped her mind. "I-I would love to, Mr. Uchiha. I would be honored to be your date for the dinner," she said.

Sasuke smiled. "Good. I will pick you up at around six, since the dinner starts at six thirty. I have a good feeling that you know how these clientele dinners go, so you will know how to dress appropriately."

She nodded. She had been to these types of dinners before, for the hospital and for the firm, with Sai. It was just a shock that she would be going with Sasuke to the dinner; usually, Sasuke went by himself, and was subsequently surrounded by women.

"We should be getting back to the office, Mr. Uchiha," Sakura said, not trusting herself to say anything else about the dinner.

"That we should, Miss Haruno," he said. Sasuke quickly paid for the food, and the two of them left, returning to the office, and going about their business.

Hours later, Sakura was waiting in the car as Ino dashed out of their apartment. She was holding onto a purse that was probably filled with makeup, and she looked excited. Sakura hoped Hinata knew what she was getting into.

"Let's go," Ino said, shutting the passenger's side door as she hopped into the car.

Sakura pulled out of the parking spot, and headed toward Hinata's home.

"It's a mansion."

"Ino, it's not really _that_ huge…"

That was a down-and-out lie. Sakura couldn't help but stare in awe of the gigantic palace that housed her colleague. Even the houses that had been a few roads before it, while big, were nothing compared to the large house, which was surrounded by acres of rolling land, and a few other, smaller (but still bigger than anything Sakura could afford) homes. A short stone fence surrounded the whole property, but it looked as though it were more for decoration than actual use. The driveway was cut off by a gate that was manned by a pale eyed male in a security booth.

"I thought you said you knew Hinata from when you were younger, anyway?" Sakura asked, glancing over at her awestruck friend.

"Yeah, but I've never been over to her _palace_ before!"

"It's not a palace!"

Sakura pulled into the driveway, and headed for the gate.

"Sakura, look at this house. It is a freaking _mansion_. I mean, I thought my parent's house was roomy, but this borders on crazy! And how many people did you say lived here?"

"Well, the estate houses the whole Hyuuga family, but from what I remember from what Shikamaru said, they live in different houses. Hinata's immediate family, like her dad, live in the, um, larger house."

The man signaled for Sakura to roll down her window, and she did so. "Name?"

"Sakura Haruno. We're here for Hinata?"

He looked over at a computer, and then nodded. "Miss Hyuuga has cleared you for entry. You may head to the main house," he said, his voice solemn with a bored tone. Sakura pulled forward as the gate swung upward, and drove slowly toward the main house. Another man ushered her into a spot to park, and opened the door for her and Ino as they got out.

The pair made their way toward the house, which now loomed over their heads. Ino walked up to the door ahead of Sakura, and rang the bell.

"I'm halfway expecting a candle-stick to answer the door. This place gives me the creeps."

"There is no Beast in there, though," Sakura replied as she took her place next to her best friend. The door opened, and Neji Hyuuga stood on the other side, looking at them.

"Hello Miss Haruno," he said, his voice just as cold as ever. "And hello to you as well, Miss Yamanaka. Come inside. Hinata wanted to answer the door herself, but she was tied up at the moment. You can wait here for her to come and show you to her own room."

Neji shut the door behind them, and started walking away. Ino leaned over, and whispered, "I thought you said there was no Beast in this castle, Sakura. His looks make up for what his personality can't, though," she muttered, watching him walk away.

"You disturb me. That's all I have to say to you."

A light echo of feet hitting the hardwood floor alerted Sakura and Ino to the arrival of someone else. Hinata rounded the corner, and let out a sigh of relief when she saw the two women standing in front of her.

"Thank y-you so m-much for coming!"

Sakura smiled. "It's really no problem, Hinata! I'm sure Ino is just dying to get you done up for your big date tonight!"

"You know I am," Ino said. "Let's move up to your room, shall we?"

Hinata nodded, and the trio walked through the huge house, making their way toward Hinata's spacious room. Both Sakura and Ino stopped short of the doorway, their mouths open in astonishment.

"Even your room is bigger than our apartment," Ino cried, her blue eyes taking in the large, open room.

Hinata grinned sheepishly, and then murmured a response that neither Ino nor Sakura could make out. The two women walked into the large room, amazed by the whole thing. The bed was pushed up against the back wall, and the carpet was a light color, that looked as though there wasn't a speck of dirt on it.

And, come to think of it, there probably wasn't. A couch was situated near a large bookshelf, and a huge vanity was on the right side of the room.

"I'm going to assume I won't be needing any of the makeup I brought," Ino said, walking as though mesmerized toward the vanity.

"D-Do you think y-you can w-work with me?" Hinata said, following Ino toward the vanity.

Ino chuckled. "Hinata, I can make you look so beautiful Kiba will be regretting he didn't ask you out the first day he met you."

Hinata's eyes widened, and Sakura watched as Ino's grin grew wider.

"Sakura, I am going to leave you in charge of going through the closet and finding what she will be wearing tonight. I, on the other hand, will be fixing her hair and makeup. Please find something that is either navy blue to match her hair, or a light lavender to go with her eyes."

Sakura nodded, even though Ino wasn't looking at her, and was directed by Hinata toward the closet. She opened the door, and was amazed by how many clothes were stuffed in the walk in closet. Hinata looked like she had every style of clothing imaginable, which was very possible.

T shirts, shorts, pants, leotards, dresses, skirts, blouses, shoes, hats, scarves, gloves, jackets, shawls, ponchos, swimsuits- they all were in the closet, and that wasn't even the half of it. Sakura moved the length of the closet, looking for what Ino wanted.

She found the dress section quick enough. Huge gowns and cute summer dresses hung from the racks in her closet. Sakura pushed through them, finding dresses of all sizes, colors, and styles. Who knew there could be so many dresses in one person's closet.

A simple navy blue dress was the first thing that caught her eye. It had spaghetti straps, and looked like a simple cotton dress, but Sakura decided against it. Hinata wanted to look beautiful, not cute. There was a lavender dress, but it was too dark, and it corseted in the front.

Sakura peaked out of the closet, and saw Ino curling Hinata's hair. Sakura knew she was going to make it into an elaborate bun atop Hinata's head; Sakura had been the recipient of that hairstyle once. She absolutely adored it, and Sakura knew that Ino only used it when she really thought the date would go well.

Turning back to her job, Sakura searched through the dresses, wishing she could try in a few. But she knew that Hinata was much bustier than she was, and Sakura just would not pull these dresses off well.

Finally, Sakura came upon a long, light lavender gown. The trim on the gown was white, and there was a soft white flower on the waist of the dress. The dress was a V-neck, but Sakura was confident it would show off Hinata's curves well.

She grabbed a pair of white, high heeled strappy sandals, and brought the outfit to Ino.

"Inooo, I have what you asked foooor," Sakura said in a singsong voice. Ino turned, and gasped once she saw what Sakura had picked out.

"Even though you can't pick out an outfit for yourself to save your life, Sakura, you always have had impeccable taste for other people!" Ino was smiling as though she just didn't insult Sakura.

Sakura smiled sarcastically. "Thanks so much for that, best friend. You really know how to make a grown woman feel like she's twelve."

"It's a skill," Ino said, grinning.

Hinata glanced into the mirror. "I c-completely forgot I owned that dress," she stated.

She put the finishing touched on Hinata's face, and then allowed Hinata to change into the dress Sakura had picked out. Once Hinata walked out of the closet, both Sakura and Ino couldn't help but stare.

"D-Do you like it?" Hinata asked.

"Well, Sakura, I think out job here is done," Ino said. "Hinata, you look fantastic!"

"Geeze, Hinata, I hope you don't look this nice at the dinner tomorrow, you'll take all the attention away from all the other girls," Sakura joked.

Ino turned to her friend. "Ah, did Sai ask you to the dinner today, as usual?"

"Yes, but I didn't accept," Sakura said, still looking at Hinata. The woman seemed so enthralled by her outfit, she couldn't stop looking into the floor length mirror in her closet door. "Well, Hinata, we should be going," Sakura called, and made Hinata turn. "Mr. Inuzuka will be here any minute, so we'll let you finish preparing for your date by yourself," she said.

The two best friends made their exit then, leaving Hinata to get a purse and fill it with the essential items. As they climbed into the car, Ino turned to her friend.

"Sine you aren't going to the dinner tomorrow, what will you do tomorrow night?" she asked.

"I never said that. I am going, just… not with Sai," Sakura said, pulling out from the Hyuuga driveway with a small wave to the gate guard. He ignored her.

Ino looked at her, confused. "Then… who?"

Sakura hesitated before answering. "I'm going with Sasuke," she finally answered.

Sakura could almost sense the excitement emanating from her best friend at the moment. "You're going to a dinner with your amazing looking boss, and you didn't bother to tell me?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not sure if I'm exactly excited about it," Sakura said.

"And why not?" Ino demanded.

Sakura bit her lip again, an old habit. "When I rejected Sai, I told him that if I changed my mind, I would be his date. But without thinking, I accepted Sasuke. I'm such an idiot," Sakura said, pulling into their apartment complex.

"Compared to Hinata's house, this place is a dump," Ino muttered, eyeing their building accusingly. "But, anyway, I think you should be more excited, Sakura! I mean, sure, Sai might be a little hurt, but he's your friend. He'll get over it. You can just tell him Sasuke forced you to come as his date or else you'd be fired, and I told you that you couldn't be unemployed again."

Sakura shrugged. The two made their way up to their apartment, and while Ino kept talking excitedly about the dinner tomorrow, and how Sakura should prepare to "wow" Sasuke into falling in love with her, Sakura was thinking.

As she went to bed, she couldn't help but realize that despite how she felt about Sai, she was very, _very_ excited about the dinner tomorrow.

**A/N: Again, I want to apologize about not updating. It's been a crazy couple of months. I hope you all will like this installment, and ignore any mistakes I might have made. Also, if my writing style seems off, it's because it's late and this chapter is a mashup of a whole bunch of scenes that I wrote while suffering from the evil "Writers Block". I owe this chapter to my friend Reels, who recently got back into fanfiction writing and dragged me along for the ride. If you're into Harry Potter, then she has a fantastic story for a drabble challenge, and the first two chapters are up. I'd recommend reading it.**

**I apologize for the wait. I adore you, my readers! **

**-Rai  
**


	6. Rainy Nights

**A/N: Kill me is you wish. I realize this is, uh, late. But it's long, so hopefully that makes up for it. Also, please don't hate it if some parts of it seem repetitive or just not my style- I have been working on this (inspiration!) for a few nights in a row now. **

**I am so sorry. Review if you'd like!**

Ino waltzed into the living room, wearing a full length purple gown that she had kept in her closet for years since she had first worn it.

"Sakura! What about this one?"

The pinkette raised her eyes to look over her best friend, amazed that in the six years since Ino had purchased the gown, she still looked just as beautiful in it as she first had. "It's amazing, just as the last four you have tried on have been amazing. Whichever one you pick, I'm sure you will be the most beautiful woman there."

Sakura had yet to move from her position on the couch since she had showered thirty minutes ago. Her own dread and guilt were slowly eating away at her for the gala she was attending, not with the man who had originally asked her, but with her boss.

If it weren't for the fact that Sasuke was in court all today, Sakura was pretty sure she would have told him she was feeling ill and couldn't make it. That wouldn't have been a lie, since she had made herself sick to the point of a headache the night before worrying about this stupid dinner and Sai. In truth, it was mostly Sai that she was worried about; she didn't want him to think that she had intentionally slighted him and gone with Sasuke. Not that Sai would ever in a million years jump to that conclusion (he really was a nice guy), but it still hurt to think that he _should_ feel that way.

"And what about you, forehead? What are you wearing to the big dinner date with your oh-so-delicious boss?"

"I don't care," Sakura replied, reverting to lying on the couch to escape Ino's soon to be critical eye.

Ino's head appeared in Sakura's field of vision, blue eyes glaring into green ones. "Get your ass off of my couch and put on some dresses before I slit your throat. Your boss let you off an hour early so you could be fully prepared for this event, and I will make sure you are looking beautiful for him."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I don't want to go-"

"Do you think I care?" Ino shot back, cutting Sakura off. "This is not about you, and how you forgot about Sai for one freaking second of your life. This is about the dinner tonight, which is an event put on by your boss for his clients. I don't give a crap about your feelings at the moment. Sasuke is counting on you to look nice and be there so one, he doesn't get embarrassed in front of all of the people who pay your salary, and two, so he doesn't have to get mobbed by the daughters of his clients the whole time. Yes, you did a stupid thing by forgetting about Sai. We get it. But I'll be damned if you throw a fit and embarrass the firm that Shikamaru works for. Now, get up, and go put on that black dress that makes you look like a movie star. You have five minutes."

Sakura stood up, stunned by Ino's speech, and moved toward her room without registering her movements. Ino glared at her the whole way, and once Sakura's door was shut, she too turned to finish her accessorizing.

"Sheesh, she sure knows how to get me to do what she wants," Sakura mumbled, opening the door to her too small closet and looking for the dress that Ino had mentioned. It was a birthday present from the blonde, with a note that had said, _"For your next first date, whenever _that_ will be."_

That Ino sure was hilarious.

The dress itself was crammed into the very corner of her closet, still in the plastic which Ino had bought it. Sakura had not worn it once, other than to try it on after her birthday dinner; between her old work, the accident, and her new job, there just wasn't time to really pursue someone.

Sakura grabbed a pair of black heels to go with the dress, and lifted the hanger off of the rack. It took her mere minutes to finish dressing herself, only to turn to the mirror, and realize that her face looked atrocious.

Okay, not really terrible, she thought pinching at the skin under her eyes. But it definitely needed work. Just like her hair- _Oh God, her hair!_- needed work.

Ino was right; Sasuke needed her to look nice. And Sakura was going to be damned if she didn't stun the pants off of Sasuke. Not that she wanted the pants of off Sasuke or anything. '_Not that I would mind_," a mischievous little voice at the back of her mind purred. She ignored it, and sat down at her vanity, trying to decide what look she would go for. Sexy? Sophisticated? Fun? Cute?

She sighed, and pulled her hair back into a pony tail while she heated up the curling iron, and got to work on her face. Without Ino's help, she wouldn't look like a super model, but she would look passable. Like someone attending a dinner with their boss, not someone trying to impress their date too terribly. Which is what she was- a secretary.

That's it, she was confusing herself. Sakura needed to focus on her makeup, and decide what she was going to do with her hair, not what she wanted to do with Sasuke.

Damn it.

The foundation was on, the eyeliner was just thick enough to really make her eyes pop, especially with the help of her eye shadow. Her hair- which she had decided she liked up- was pulled into a pony tail made of curls, and two curls framed her face on either side.

All in all, she didn't look too shabby.

Sakura stared at herself for just a few more seconds, trying to figure out if she should wear the silver drop necklace with the matching earrings or go with pearls. She finally decided on the silver, and then looked at the time.

There was still around twenty minutes left before Sasuke got here. Assuming, of course, that he would be on time and not late. Or early. She walked out into the living room, hearing Ino humming softly to herself, and commenced waiting. She glanced at the clock, knowing that it would only be a few minutes until…

_5:40_. Oh boy, this might be a while.

Her nerves were killing her, though, and so she started walking around the living room, straightening little trinkets that had fallen out of place.

5:43.

Sakura was still waiting, sipping the water she had poured for herself to give her something to while she waited, when she heard the knock at the door.

It was an odd feeling, having her heart jump thinking that it might be Sasuke who stood on the other side, waiting for her to answer. It could be Sasuke, dressed up, looking better than he usually did. Sakura stood, calling out to Ino that she could answer it and the blonde could continue to dress.

Before she opened the door, however, she took a deep breath. Part of her was dreading the dinner, dreading Sasuke's reaction to how she looked (what if he didn't like it?), and, most importantly, dreading Sai's reaction to her being _at_ the dinner. The other part of her was nervous with excitement. With those two feelings at war inside of her, she threw open the door, only to come face to face with a dark haired, tall man, with dark eyes.

For once in his life, Shikamaru was early to pick Ino up.

"I hate you," Sakura said as she attempted to shut the door in Shikamaru's face. He got her worked up for nothing. Nothing _at all._

But he was stronger than she was, and as soon as he put his hands on the door to open it, she just let him walk in. "Now that's no way to talk to the man who got you a job at his firm, now is it?" Shikamaru teased in his usual slow, lazy voice.

"Oh, and what a blessing it has been to answer phones and type up documents for someone who isn't you. Thank you, so much, for forgetting to tell me that it was not you who I would be working for, but Sasuke," Sakura replied, giving him a cold glare. He just laughed it off.

"From what I can tell, my dear friend, you seem to like working for Sasuke more than you let on." Shikamaru said.

Sakura stuck her tongue out at him, glad that Shikamaru was here to relieve some of the tension she was feeling over this dinner. They were old friends, and it was nice to be able to joke with him. "Ino will be out in a second, she had to put the 'finishing touches' on her outfit for tonight. Can I get you something to drink? Water? Milk? Those diet sodas that Ino loves that make you sick?"

He shrugged, and let Sakura herd him into the kitchen to wait. "I'm fine, thanks."

The silence was a comfortable one, and Sakura returned to nursing her now room temperature water.

"So, you look really nice tonight, Sakura," Shikamaru commented as he glanced around the room. "I don't think I've ever seen you wear that dress, although I believe I've seen it before somewhere else. Are you borrowing one of-" he stopped midsentence, and stood up straight, staring at something over Sakura's head. She could only guess that Ino had walked into the room, and as she spun around, she saw she was right.

And Shikamaru was right to stare. She had changed her dress again in the 45 minutes it had been since Sakura got ready, and the blue dress was perfect for her. Not to mention Ino was an expert at doing her own hair and make-up, a title Sakura would never be able to achieve.

"Wow," Shikamaru said, his voice sounding slightly breathless. "You look… just, wow."

Ino laughed, and Sakura could tell that she was pleased with herself. "Have I really reduced one of the smartest lawyers in town to speechlessness? I do believe tonight will be a fantastic night." Ino moved toward Shikamaru, stopping short of her escort to talk to her best friend. "I will see you tonight. I'll try not to steal away your boss, but it will be hard," she said with a wink. "But seriously, forehead, you look good. Sasuke will have a hard time not staring at you. Of course, tonight will also be the perfect night to see how he really feels about you, hm?" Ino added with a mischievous grin.

Sakura said her goodbyes to her two friends, and then returned to her waiting. It was 5:53, and she was getting more nervous by the second.

'_I wonder what his reaction will be to seeing me?'_ She wondered. 5:54. _'Will he look at me and be speechless, like Shikamaru? Or will he tell me I look beautiful? Will he just plaster on a fake smile and say I look good? Will he even mean whatever he says?_'

5:55.

She took another sip of her drink, staring at the clock with an intensity only felt by her med school textbooks. The seconds ticked by, and Sakura's mind was plagued with questions that would not be answered until Sasuke arrived.

5:56.

Waiting was excruciating.

Something buzzed beside her, and Sakura grabbed her phone, hoping it was a text from Sasuke, confirming his whereabouts. Instead, it was a text from Ino, saying "Made you look."

"Pig," Sakura muttered, responding to the text with something quite unsavory. But then a realization made her heart stop worrying for a second: If Ino was texting her, it must have meant that they had seen Sasuke, either on their way out of the building, or on the road. If she had seen Sasuke, then that meant he was close.

A knock at the door confirmed her hypothesis. Sakura almost jumped out of her seat, and then she ran to the door. Before she opened it, she smoothed her hair, took a deep breath, and prayed that it wasn't just Ino, forgetting her keys.

What she found, though, was not Ino; Sasuke was standing on the left side of the door frame, with his hands in his pockets. He wasn't staring at the door, but instead was looking at the floor, almost as if he was… nervous? At the sound of the door opening, however, his head jerked up, and Sakura took in a small breath at the sight of him.

He looked great in a tuxedo. His hair was messy, but it didn't look out of place or lazily done. It just fit with everything, from the black jacket to the dark tie, slightly loosened at the top, with one button on his collar undone. His blazer wasn't buttoned either, and she knew that before he would let his clients see him, he would fix all of this. But she was glad that he hadn't fixed his outfit quite yet, because he looked gorgeous.

Everything about him was elegant and… sexy. Very sexy.

Sasuke was staring at Sakura, his eyes wide, and his mouth slightly open. For a few seconds, she noted, he didn't say anything at all. Then, he caught himself, and ran a hand through his hair quickly before smiling. "You look amazing, Sakura," he said finally, still staring at her. Sakura's cheeks grew warm, and she knew he could see the blush adorning her face.

"Thank you," she answered. "Would you like to come in or should we be going?"

"We should probably be going, Miss Haruno. As much as I would like to keep this beauty for myself, I think I have to go to my own firm's dinner."

Sakura grinned. "I would assume so, Mr. Uchiha," she said as she stepped out of her apartment, locking the door behind her. They walked out of the apartment building, but Sakura stopped short. "Oh, it's raining," she said, looking first at the spotted ground, and then up at the sky. She had completely ignored the weather as she waited for Sasuke to come and pick her up.

In one quick motion, Sasuke had taken off this jacket and offered it to her. "You can use that to keep the rain off," he said, and then slipped his arm around her waist so he could lead her to the car. Sakura took his jacket gratefully, holding it over her head to keep her hair dry. They moved through the rain quickly.

Sasuke opened Sakura's door, and then shut it after her, sliding into his own a few moments later. Sakura handed him his blazer back, which he laid carefully on the back seat before starting the car and taking off.

The ride started in silence. Sakura stared out her window, watching the world pass by and the rain fall. She realized, slowly, that Sasuke get his radio on some kind of pop station, and she found herself smiling, and then starting to laugh.

He looked over at her, curious.

"You really listen to this? All the time?" she asked with a giggle.

Sasuke was silent for a minute, as though he was listening to the station for the first time, and then he grinned, an embarrassed grin. "Not all the time," he said. "Usually, when I know someone else will be in the car, I either change it to something a little, um, more respectable or just turn it off," he admitted. She glanced sideways at him, and was astonished to see a small blush on his cheeks as well. "I guess I didn't even think about hiding this part of myself from you, since you basically know everything else about me. I guess now you get to be the only other person in the world who knows my guilty pleasure music."

"When I'm driving in my car alone, I like to turn up my music and sing to it, even though I do a horrible job, so I really don't think that your guilty pleasure even compares to mine," she said with a grin of her own.

"So now we are competing to see who has the guiltiest pleasure of them all? To see which one of us does something that is just that unexpected?"

Sakura nodded. "That's right. I am going to win- I will beat you, Sasuke, with the magnitude of my guilty pleasures. You will have to bow to the sheer force of secrets that others are unaware of, and that make me out to be a totally different person than I am," she said with mock seriousness. "Such as singing in the shower, which I do and Ino hates, and watching E!"

"That's the best you've got? I don't even think watching E! counts as a guilty pleasure," he teased. "I also sing in the shower, although I have been told by the few people that have ever heard me sing in the shower, that I am great. I also know how to knit, even if I don't do it often."

She was enjoying seeing this side of Sasuke. He was a little more fun and open then he was in the office, which was to be expected. And it really seemed like he was enjoying himself. "Seriously? You knit?"

"I can. I also read cheap romance novels."

She was taken off guard by those two; Sasuke had never seemed like the type of man who could knit or read cheap romance novels. He just seemed like he did other things, such as read real books or play golf constantly. Lawyer things. Rich kid things. "While knitting is impressive, I have to say that you reading smutty romance novels definitely wins," she said

"Oh, haha, Sakura," Sasuke said. His tone suggested she was being childish, but his smile suggested he thought it was funnier than he let on. "So, tonight, I just wanted to prepare you- there will be a lot of people coming up to talk to me in the 45 minutes before the dinner is started."

"I know. I have been to things like this before with Sai, you do remember, right?"

He nodded. "I know. I am just warning you- it won't be the same. Every single person in that room will be talking to me at some point or another. It will be more hectic than anything you remember from these things with Sai."

Sakura just laughed, thinking that there was no way it could be much worse. She had expected to have more people talk to them (It was Sasuke, after all), but it couldn't have been too many more than talked to Sai at these events. After all, even if Sasuke was the owner, Sai was pretty important himself, and had quite a few clients.

She wished she had believed him.

30 minutes later, Sakura stood with a champagne glass in her hand, being introduced to another client of Sasuke's, probably the 50th she had met so far. There weren't more than 75 people in the room, and yet she felt like more kept coming out of the woodwork just to speak to Sasuke and then disappear.

"Miss Haruno, it is a pleasure to meet you. You look beautiful tonight. Mr. Uchiha is a lucky man to have you to help him," the client said, shaking her hand as well.

Sakura smiled, and responded, "Thank you. Although I don't know if Mr. Uchiha is actually lucky to have me help him- I can't say I had too much experience with being a secretary before being hired." She laughed, and the two men followed suit.

"She is just modest. Miss Haruno is great at her job, and the best assistant I have ever had the pleasure of working with," Sasuke said, and then turned the client's attention to something else quickly before saying goodbye.

Sakura took a sip of champagne, and looked around the room as the lull in clients took hold. "You do look amazing tonight," Sasuke said, and when Sakura looked at him, she saw that he was watching her.

Her smile grew. "I believe you may have mentioned that already, once or twice."

"I would keep saying it, over and over, but I believe that repetition would make the word lose its effect. What do you think?"

"I would be most inclined to agree, although I don't think you've reached your limit just yet," she said.

Sasuke's eyebrow quirked upward. "Oh?" he asked. "Well, I will keep saying it until you deem your ears tired of the word."

His attention was drawn away a second later by another client, and Sakura continued her gaze about the room. Dinner would start soon, and she would sit at a table with Sasuke and his mother, along with some clients of his.

Across the room, she spotted Sai, who hadn't noticed her quite yet. Sakura motioned to Sasuke that she was going to talk to someone, and he just nodded, his attention focused on another client of interest. It seemed as though everyone was eager to talk to the brilliant, silver tongued Sasuke Uchiha tonight. Which made sense, yes, but she still wished she had more time alone with him.

'_What am I thinking? He is my boss! I don't need alone time with my boss.'_

Sakura stopped a few feet short of Sai, and stood by as he finished his conversation. Just like Sasuke, Sai looked like the picture of handsome in his tuxedo. His short hair was perfectly styled, not a single hair out of place. He looked like a model. Not the darkly sexy type, as Sasuke had been when he picked Sakura up, but the quiet, reserved handsome type, the ones that tried to keep people like Sasuke and Naruto in line.

It took him a second to realize she was there, but once he did, he excused himself as quickly as possible and came over to her.

She recognized the look on his face as being similar to the look Shikamaru had worn after first seeing Ino tonight. "Sakura…" he said, her name taking on a breathless quality. He took her hand, and bent down to kiss it, like they did in the old stories about princesses, before looking back at her face. "I don't know if there is anything I can say to describe how you look," he added a full minute later, "seeing as beautiful doesn't begin to cover it."

Sakura could feel the blood rising to her cheeks, and she looked down to try and hide the bright, intense red she knew he had already seen. "Thank you." It took her a few seconds to recover, and when she did, she saw him smiling at her, with his real, I-am-amused-because-of-you smile. "You don't look half bad yourself."

"So you did show up after all? With Sasuke?" he asked moments later, his eyes not leaving her face.

"Y-yeah," Sakura said. "He asked, and I didn't really feel like I could say no. Not to my boss," she lied, hoping he would just accept her explanation.

Sai released her hand, something Sakura didn't realize he still had in his possession. "Maybe I should have opened the job of secretary to you; if only I had known that you wouldn't reject a request from your boss. However, I guess it's a good thing Sasuke took you- had I seen you standing there, looking like you do, in your apartment, we never would have made it."

Sakura's eyes widened as she looked up into Sai's grinning face, but in a second, he was gone, having been pulled away by someone else to talk to another rich client of the firm. Sakura turned around, her mind in a daze. Did he really think she looked _that_ good?

Her mind flashed back to the only other time that anyone had been so awestruck by her. She could see his hair, his eyes, his glinting teeth, and she caught herself before she jumped into any of _those_ memories. Not tonight. It was a good night- it had been over a year. She shouldn't, wouldn't, _couldn't_ get caught up again in that night.

Sasuke was talking to someone as Sakura walked up, but neither the young woman he was talking to nor her boss noticed her arrival. She could hear the pink haired girl whispering to her boss, and caught what seemed to be a very heated discussion.

"Do you want to end up like your brother? Ignored and forgotten by society, only spoken of with shame and as a way to give a lesson of what not to do when it comes to marriage?" the woman asked, her voice drenched in spite and bitterness.

"Itachi did what he felt was right. You have no right to assume otherwise, Karin!" Sasuke said, sounding angry and defensive. Sakura was about to move forward, pull him away, but something the girl said stopped her.

"She isn't good enough for you, Sasuke. She is a no one, a girl who comes from a family that no one will ever remember. You can't be falling for someone like that! Your mother will be heart broken. Two sons in a row and neither made a match that was good enough for his family's status. "

It took Sakura a second to realize that there was a good chance they were discussing her.

Sasuke snorted. "My mother won't be heart broken. She will be happy with whoever I decide to marry, and that's that. Just like she was with Itachi, even if the match was less than optimal. But you also shouldn't jump to the conclusion that just because I brought her to the dinner tonight, it means that I intend to marry her or even feel anything more than a friend to a friend, or a boss to employee."

"Anyone can see-"

"Shut up. Now. I will not let you talk about her like she is unworthy of me or anything like that. I am an Uchiha, yes, but I am also just a man. Not a king, not royalty. Just a man. And if I decide that she is someone that I could love, then that is my decision alone, and it will have no effect whatsoever on your life, Karin. If I hear you utter one word against her again, you will have no idea what hit you, and I can promise it will be enough to make you wish you had kept your mouth shut." His tone was venomous and convincing, making it apparent why he was such a good lawyer.

Sakura chose this time to walk up to the pair. Karin saw her first, and her face lit up with surprise and shame. Sasuke glanced over his shoulder, and then wiped all traces of anger from his face, replacing it with a hasty smile. "Hello, Sakura," he said, taking her arm to draw her closer to him. "This is Karin, and ex-girlfriend of mine. She was just leaving."

Karin took her cue and stalked off, only muttering a quick hello to Sakura.

"Was there a reason you sounded so angry, Mr. Uchiha?" She wanted to ask him about his brother, Itachi, and what he had done that was so shameful, but it didn't seem appropriate. Anyway, he'd know that she had eavesdropped on a seemingly private conversation.

He sighed. "Karin just annoys me to the core of my being, that's all. We dated for a year or two a long time ago, and now she acts as though her one goal in life is to ruin mine. Come on, now, the dinner is starting."

Sasuke moved off, and Sakura walked behind him, her mind racing. But, like the good secretary she was, she kept her thoughts, her theories, her questions, all to herself.

Ino appeared out of nowhere, it seemed, and she sauntered right up to Sasuke with a big smile on her face. "Miss Yamanaka, it is a pleasure to see you, as always," he said, smiling down at her.

"And it is my pleasure, as always, to see you, Mr. Uchiha," she said with a wink. Sakura resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her best friend, because she could almost see where this was going. "Especially when you just have such a darling date! Do you mind if I whisk her away for just a second? I need to speak to her."

"But the dinner is just-"

"It won't be long, a few seconds at most. I promise," Ino said, not waiting for confirmation before pulling Sakura away from Saskue. Ino's face changed, in a matter of seconds, from flirty to serious. "Sakura, I think it would be a good idea for you to leave as soon as the dinner is over. Say you feel sick or something, okay?"

A look of confusion flashed on Sakura's face. "Why? What's wrong?"

Ino frowned. "She's here. If she sees you here, she'll use the opportunity after the dinner, when Sasuke is all tied up with business and can't do anything, to lash out again. Sakura. Do you understand?"

"Not at all," Sakura said. But Ino looked up, and suddenly the fake smile was back. Sakura could almost sense Sasuke's presence near her, and a shiver went up her spine. Ino shot Sakura one more warning glance, and then strode off to join Shikamaru at their table.

Sasuke took Sakura by the arm as the guests began to settle, and glanced sideways at her. "What was that about?"

"If I knew," Sakura said, "I'd tell you."

But she couldn't get the words Ino had said out of her mind. She's here? How vague was that? Sakura's mind flashed back to the other pinkette, Karin. But no, that wasn't who Ino was referring to, Sakura could tell. If it had been Karin, she would have said Karin. It must be someone whose name was associated with… Hm.

They took their places at the table, Sakura sitting in between Mrs. Uchiha and Sasuke. Luckily, she was not the main attraction at the table, and the Uchiha barrier that surrounded her kept any questions from being fielded her way.

Sakura glanced around the room as dinner was being served, not even listening to the conversation Sasuke was having with a client about some major case he had just finished that had really gotten media attention. She was trying to find Ino, to see if any more clues as to the mystery identity of this woman could be given. But when she located the blonde, Ino was engaged in a conversation with someone else, not even looking Sakura's way.

It had to be someone here- maybe Sakura would recognize her?

Sakura scanned the room with renewed intensity, looking for anyone she might know. There was Sai, fake-smiling to a group of clients. Naruto, with his date, looking calm and collected. Kiba and Hinata, sitting very close together, while Kiba conversed with someone else. Sakura could spot Neji and his date, a woman with long brown hair and a familiar face. Sakura narrowed her eyes for only a second, before the cold, sinking, guilt-filled sickness set in.

That was who Ino meant. Of course. It was her- Tenten. His best friend. The best friend of Rock Lee, the girl whom he had known since he was a kid, and the girl who hated Sakura with every fiber of her being.

Sakura could almost hear Tenten yelling at her, the hospital corridor making her loud, angry words echo.

"Say, Sasuke, how did you figure out about the doctor covering for the other one? From what I've read, it wasn't obvious at all, and the man was almost certain no one would ever find out," a client said.

Sasuke smiled, glancing over at Sakura, who was only halfway listening. "Someone very close to me has a medical degree, and she looked over the case, as a kind of consultant."

"I didn't see her name in any of the papers- wouldn't she have had to be called in as a witness?"

"Not necessarily. I didn't think she would want to have to go through the hassle of court, and so I took her advice, and found another consulting doctor, who looked over the case, confirmed what she had already told me, and agreed to make an appearance in court."

The older man chuckled. "Sounds like you have a real lifesaver in this woman. I'd like her to be my doctor, if she's that clever."

"She is," Sasuke confirmed. Sakura smiled with a little blush, knowing that it was meant as a compliment.

"_But you are clever, my beautiful Sakura. Clever, intelligent, beautiful, graceful- you are perfect, in every sense of the word._"

She felt her stomach tighten and dread rise up in her. Just seeing Tenten (and remembering the fire, the fury, in the other woman's eye as she told Sakura that it was her fault, it was all her fault that he had gotten in an accident in the first place) was bringing back the memories of that night that she had tried so hard to suppress.

Ino was right, she knew; she was going to have to go home right after the dinner. If it wasn't rude, she would have just begged Sasuke to take her back now.

She took a bite of her food, not even remotely hungry. But she wanted to keep her mind off of the memories, and then, of course, she wanted to appear happy and healthy for the clients.

"So, Miss Haruno, what did you do before becoming Mr. Uchiha's secretary? I'm sure you didn't graduate college with the idea of working in a law firm," an older woman asked.

Sakura's attention was taken away from the problem at hand (luckily) and placed onto the woman. "I was a med school student before working for Mr. Uchiha," she said warmly.

"Oh? So you didn't finish school?"

"I did," she replied, keeping her tone bright. "But I found out very quickly that the hospital was not the place for me, and so I looked for employment elsewhere. Mr. Uchiha was gracious enough to employ me, and I enjoy my job. It's much more demanding than I would have thought to be the personal assistant to a top notch lawyer like Mr. Uchiha."

The woman smiled. "Oh, Sasuke, she is a good secretary. She makes me raise my already high opinion of you. She has charm- she could have been a lawyer had she gotten the degree."

"Thank you, ma'am," Sakura replied.

"I know; Miss Haruno is the best secretary I have had to date, and I am most pleased with her work. She is wonderful at her job, and indeed- very charming when she needs to be," he replied easily. And, just like that, Sakura was removed from the spotlight, and quickly, the memories came back.

It was raining then, too. He had come to the apartment to beg her to reconsider. She had said no, that she didn't think she could handle a boyfriend then.

"It's only a date," he had said, his eyes pleading. "Please, Sakura, it's only a date. Just one date, just to see how you feel about me."

But she had just sighed, telling him that she knew how she had felt about him. He was a great friend, a wonderful guy, but not her guy. Not the right guy for her.

Her words had cut him deeply, she remembered. But he was persistent. Always persistent.

Sakura took another bite of her food, trying to look interested in the conversation at hand. All too soon, the main course was taken away, and the desserts were being brought out for them to enjoy.

"So, Sasuke," someone else said, drawing Sakura's attention truly to the table. "Isn't it about time for you to be settling down?" The man was grinning, and Sasuke returned the grin.

"I don't know if any woman could deal with my hectic schedule. I've been trying to focus on work for the past few years, not on a girlfriend."

It dawned on Sakura that these were odd questions for a client to be asking of a lawyer. But then again, she realized, these people had known Sasuke for most of his life. They had seen him grow up and had known him before he became a lawyer. They probably had granddaughters that had once had a crush on Sasuke.

"It is a pity that the only truly suitable girl for someone such as yourself has an interest in the youngest Inuzuka boy," a woman sighed.

"But I think that they make a very suitable match; the Hyuuga clan will benefit from a marriage with the Inuzuka's," Mrs. Uchiha said, ending the speculation on Sasuke's love life with Hinata. "My son is right; it seems there are very few unspoken for women his age, much less any that would be able to live with him being in the office all the time. When he is ready, she will be there for him, whoever she is."

Dessert was promptly taken away, and then, the groups began to dissolve once more. "Sorry about that," Sasuke whispered as the clients stood up to go speak with friends and leave. "My love life seems to be the hot topic this year. As it has been the last three years in a row."

Sakura smiled halfheartedly. "It's okay, really," she said. She did her best to make her voice sound cheery yet sick, as if she was trying to hide the miserable portions. It wasn't that hard.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concern coloring his voice. His hand touched her arm, and he looked into her eyes, almost as if he was trying to find the source of her 'illness' there.

"I just feel a little sick for some reason. I think all the nerves from meeting so many clients has really set me on edge. I don't want to be a bother or anything, you don't need tow worry."

Sasuke frowned. "No, it's okay- if you don't feel well, you should go home. I'll take you- wait, no. I can't, not until the dinner is over. God, I'm so sorry Sakura. I will call for a car, okay?"

"There's no need for that, Sasuke," a voice said, entering their conversation. Sai was standing behind Sakura, smiling. "I can take Miss Haruno home; no one will miss me like they will miss you."

Sakura could almost see Sasuke stiffen, but instead of rejecting the offer, Sasuke replied with a thank you.

Sai pulled Sakura away. "I saw Tenten here earlier, and Ino warned me you might need saving," he said, pulling her toward the door. "With any luck, we'll get out without a scene."

"You shouldn't have said that," Sakura said as they walked out the door into the lobby, near the bathrooms.

Tenten was walking toward them, and her eyes widened as she took in the former doctor before her. "S-Sakura? What are you even… how can you even… I never thought I'd see you again," she said, her voice low and slightly angry already. Sai tried pulling on Sakura, but her legs were frozen in place.

"Hello, Tenten. If you don't mind, I was just leaving, with Sai," Sakura said, still trying to get her legs to move.

A humorless chuckle escaped Tenten's lips. "Yeah, I do kind of mind. Barely a year passes, and you're not even phased by it, are you?"

"Things like this happen all the time," Sakura said, repeating the exact words she had said to Tenten the night of the accident.

"But not to people you know. Not to people that thought they loved you," Tenten lashed back. "What he saw in you, I will never figure out. He always told me you were compassionate, sweet, smart… and yet you don't even care. You never cared about him like he cared about you."

"And he knew that," Sai said, his eyes trained on Tenten's face. "She had told him many times that he was just a friend." Sakura could hear the anger in Sai's voice, as well, which would explain why he had stopped pulling on her, trying to get her to move.

Tenten glared at Sai. "This doesn't concern you, Sai. This is her problem, not yours. Don't let yourself take any part in her mistakes. Don't let her drag you down, too." She turned her frosty eyes on Sakura. "I bet you were glad when he crashed. I bet that you, even though you were called in to help with the surgery, didn't put your full effort into saving him. You were probably relieved that he _died_, Sakura, relieved, even just a little bit, that you wouldn't have to deal with him anymore."

"I don't have to listen to this, Tenten. Not again. I tried everything. I quit because of him. His death impacted me more than anything else ever has. And I have spent the last year of my life trying to get over it, with little success until I started working for Mr. Uchiha. Let's go, Sai," Sakura said with tears in her eyes, finding her legs again, and pulling Sai toward the door.

Tenten stood for a second longer, and then walked back into the dinner, not feeling the least bit better about making Sakura cry.

They walked in silence to the car, not even bothering to keep themselves from the rain. Sakura was crying, hard, trying not to relive that night. But it was impossible, as it almost always was, to stop the memories.

"I'm sorry for not helping you more, Sakura," Sai said as they got into the car. "I… I should have tried harder to get you away from her. But she was making me angry, and I wanted to defend you. I'm sorry."

Sakura attempted to smile, but to no avail. "It's not your fault, though. And I thank you for what you did, and what you're doing now. God, Sai, where would I be without you? Not even Ino knows half of what I've told you about that night. I just… I can't."

And the memories burned in her mind as they rode in silence to her apartment. He had come there, more than a year ago, begging for her attention. She shot him down, just like every time before.

Except this time, he seemed more desperate. "I'll do anything, Sakura. Just one date. Please."

No Lee, she had told him. Not tonight. And she didn't mean to be cruel, but she didn't think they would ever go on a date. He was a great friend. But she didn't like him.

"But I love you."

And Sakura had just frowned, and told him that he was probably unsure of his feelings, but love was too strong. Much too strong for what he probably felt.

"Oh. If that's what you think." And he had left. That was the end of it.

Later that night, she had gotten a call, telling her that she was needed in the emergency room. Someone had been in an accident and she was on call. So she went, only to find out once she got there that it was him. The rain and his emotions had sent him barreling into a tree. He was near death.

She did try her best, not to think about him as Lee, but as a patient. She tried to save him, to keep him alive. He had whispered that he was glad the last thing he saw before he died was her, and she had to leave the room as he took his final breath.

She was the one who told Tenten. And Tenten was angry- not at life, but at Sakura. Saying Sakura didn't try as hard as she could have, saying it was all Sakura's fault he had been driving. Sakura admitted it was her fault, since he had come to speak to her. Tenten said she should have just said yes, damnit, to his offer. If she had, Lee would have been alive.

"You don't know that," Sakura said, but the idea was planted in her mind now.

Tenten just started crying and yelling, and suddenly someone else was by her side, consolingher, apologizing to Sakura for Tenten's words.

"If it helps," Sai said, breaking her out of that night, "I know that you weren't relieved. That you didn't even think it was a good thing that he had died." He killed the engine, and got out of the car.

"Thank you, Sai. You always know what to say to make me feel just slightly better," she said quietly as he opened the door for her. They walked inside, and Sakura grabbed her room key from her purse.

Sakura turned to face Sai before she opened the door. "Thank you so much for taking me back."

"It was my pleasure, Sakura. You really do look beautiful tonight, even if you don't feel it," he responded.

She was about to thank him again, when he did something unexpected: he leaned in, and kissed her. Her mind was shaken free of the thoughts of Lee for just a moment, and filled with surprise.

He pulled away a few seconds later, and then looked at her face. Something that he saw (or didn't see) must have triggered a reaction for him. "I'm sorry for that, too," he said too quickly. "I don't even know what I was thinking," he muttered as he backed away.

"No, wait, Sai," Sakura said, reaching toward him. She didn't know what else to say; she hadn't enjoyed the kiss, nor wanted more. But he stopped, and looked at her, waiting. "Why… why did you do that?"

"I'm so sorry, my Sakura, I'm so sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have- not tonight. Not with Tenten and all. But you just looked so gorgeous, and something inside of me knew I was losing you-"

"Losing me?"

"Never mind," Sai said. "I'll just be going now."

And he fled the scene, leaving Sakura behind, wondering what he had meant by losing her. Wondering why she didn't enjoy it, and why- most of all- she was disappointed that it was Sai kissing her, and not someone else.

Not Sasuke.

Sakura walked in her apartment, and kicked her shoes off, before collapsing on the couch.

Sai's kiss had been pleasant, and she had felt something for him in the past. She realized this as she laid down and squeezed her eyes shut. She had felt something for Sai before, something she never realized. Something that was slowly budding again in her chest.

But why tonight, of all nights, did he have to kiss her? Why, with Lee fresh in her mind once more, did he have to try something?

And why was she thinking of Sasuke, as well? He had nothing to do with Sai's kiss, yet he was on her mind. His face loomed in her head. His smile, his laugh- even his compliments tonight seemed to take up more of her mind than Sai's kiss and Tenten combined. Yes, she knew, she was attracted to her boss.

Who wouldn't be? He was sexy, smart, and fun.

But then again, it was Sai who had called her beyond beautiful, while Sasuke only said amazing. Sai who took her home, while Sasuke had other obligations. Sai who knew her history, who knew about her pain, not Sasuke.

Sai was everything she should want. He was handsome, he was funny, and he liked her, she could see that now.

But she didn't know if she would ever like him as more than just a best friend.

"Not again," she muttered to herself. It was like her life was a repeat episode of a soap opera. A really bad, cheesy soap opera, filled with love triangles that she didn't even want.

Sai's image materialized in her mind, only to be replaced a second later with the image of Lee. They weren't quite the same- Lee was, she had to admit, kind of annoying, but adorable at the same time. Sai wasn't annoying, not at all. He just wasn't right.

Sakura drifted off into a sad, confused sleep, feeling achy and sick.

Dreams fluttered past, filled with images of Sasuke, some with Sai, even others with Lee, Tenten, and Ino. She could see herself with Sai; she was happy, content. But with Sasuke, she was more than content- she was filled with bliss just from being in his presence.

The phone rang, off in the distance, pulling Sakura out of her less than fulfilling sleep. She got up, confused, her head pounding, but answered the phone anyway.

"Hello?" she said groggily.

"Dr. Haruno?"

Dr. Haruno? She hadn't been called that in a while. The fog lifted from her mind quickly. Something wasn't right, was it? "This is she. May I ask who is calling?"

It was happening again. The dread. She could see Lee's face, feel Sai's kiss on her lips.

"Dr. Haruno, I am a nurse calling from Konoha General. You are listed as the emergency contact for a patient we have, Mr. Sai-"

"No," Sakura said, feeling the panic, the despair, she didn't the last time a call like this had come in. When they had simply been calling her in for an emergency, not because it was Lee, but a patient. "Is he okay? What happened? Oh God, please tell me Sai isn't dead."

"He was in an accident- another car hydroplaned and slammed into his while he was driving, or so we've been told. He is in emergency care. Would you like-"

Sakura was alert now, still holding the phone. "I'm on my way. I'll be there soon."

"Yes ma'am."

She hung up the phone, grabbed her keys, and ran out the door. It didn't even cross her mind to change, to leave a note, to do anything. Only one phrase kept repeating, kept echoing, through her mind.

"_Oh God, not again. Let him be alright."_

**A/N: Obvious? I think so, but if you didn't, then yay me! Haha. Anyway, again SO SORRY FOR MAKING THIS LATE! AND TAKING SO FREAKING LONG TO UPDATE. I AM SO SORRY. **

**Back to the story- I'm hoping all of it makes sense; if there is a line that made you go "What the?" then just comment on the story and I will explain it if you want. Also- Please tell me what you thought of this chapter! I really do want to know! Did you like the SaiSaku? The SasuSaku? The ShikaIno? What was good, what parts sucked? Let me know, it will definitely help me in the coming chapter! **

**And please don't hate me for 1.) it being totally late (although I can understand if you do) and 2.) the SaiSaku… it will get better. Eventually. **

**Thank you,**

**Rai**


	7. Wrong for all the Right Reasons

**A/N: So it hasn't **_**quite **_**been six months yet. I'm extremely sorry for the delay, guys, I really am! But there is good news: I am exactly 26 days away from the end of my freshman year of college. So yeah, hopefully I'll able to get a lot done this summer! And actually maybe finish this story. Like I've said before, I know where I am going with it- the problem is getting it out of my head and onto paper. **

**Enjoy!**

Life was not, is not, and never shall be fair.

Sakura sat with her with her elbows on her knees and her head resting in her palms, thinking that over and over again. Life is not fair. Life was not fair. Life never, ever, will be fair.

She was still in her black dress, and her hair, while much messier and slightly rumpled looking, was still in its curly pony tail. Her makeup had worn off, though, and there were small black streaks of eyeliner around her red, puffy eyes from her tears.

This shouldn't happen. People should never have to be in this kind of situation twice.

Once a person goes through the heart wrenching stress for a devastating, horrible car accident, they should never have to deal with one again. They should never have to be sitting in a hospital, knowing that their friend is on the verge of dying, and knowing that they can't do anything about it.

Before, Lee was too bad off for Sakura to be able to help. So she had slumped outside the room as he took his last breaths, unable to control her shaking. She was in shock. And she was being yelled at. She didn't even have the ability to feel sad until after he had died, after Tenten had left. She cried. She became disillusioned with her dream job.

She quit.

Now, she didn't have the clearance to even look at Sai's doctors until they got out of the ICU. She had peeked into his room earlier, barely being able to see around the surgeons and the nurses, but the sight was not pretty. There was blood, a lot of it, and his skin was pale. Nothing looked like it was going well. She could hear the yelling from the room as they passed, and she wanted to collapse right there.

The shock that had hit after the phone call had passed one she stepped into the waiting room. Then the crying started.

Even tears, though, can't last forever.

Eventually, you lose the ability to express your pain. You can feel it, and it consumes you, but you are unable to say a word or shed a tear. It's like a hurricane under the surface, a fire burning through your veins that no one else can see. It burns, it shakes, and it tears you up inside, but the thin casing of your skin keeps it inside.

And that just makes everything hurt worse.

Sakura pressed her forehead into her open hands, willing the tears to fall. Willing some sort of release to happen, something to make her feel better.

Nothing happened. She felt sick to her stomach, a knot having had bound itself in her stomach. Her throat was raw and useless as well, hardly allowing for speech, much less wailing.

She knew that if Sai died, that if he didn't make it, that everything she was feeling would build up inside of her, like a pressure she could never get rid of, but it would never spill out. That hurricane, that fire, would linger forever, right out of reach, and never go away.

How is that even remotely fair?

Her breathing became shallow as she attempted once more to pull the pain out of herself. She couldn't take the pressure anymore. It was pulsing under her skin, tormenting her, pushing her worry to its limits and pressing her to the edge of herself.

"Miss?"

Sakura jumped at the noise, and stared up at the nurse who had called her. A small amount of hope, but mostly dread, filled her soul. The pressure built, stretching. Sakura didn't think it could get much worse than it had been, but just the thought of seeing Sai skyrocketed the buildup.

"Y-Yes?" she asked "Is there something I…"

"I was just going to ask if there was someone you wanted to call. You've been in here for an hour, and you have been alone. I just thought that maybe… that maybe you'd like some sort of support."

"Oh."

Sakura let out a breath, and nodded. It dawned on her that she must have left her cellphone somewhere along the way. The nurse held out a cellphone, and smiled, her face full of pity.

The pressure lessened, slightly. Sakura attempted to smile back, but she guessed it just looked like a mangled mess.

"Just return it when you're done," she said warmly.

"I will. Thank you," Sakura replied, standing shakily and half walking, half stumbling to the nurses' station. She took the white phone out of the hand of the woman, and stared at it as she returned to her seat.

Who was she supposed to call?

She cradled the phone in her hands, contemplating. Sai's family? No, his mother had died when he was young, and he hadn't spoken to his father in years; Sai had been placed in foster care not long after his mom's death. He never talked about his past much. Even his foster brother… she knew that Sai had one, but he, too, was also dead. She didn't even know his name.

Her face screwed up in pain, and she took another deep breath. She wondered if Sai was somehow capable of thought. If, like so many people who wrote on things like comas claimed, he was having an out of body experience at the moment.

Would he decide that he wanted to go to them? To meet them in the afterlife, if there was such a thing? Would he decide that there was nothing for him here?

A solitary tear fell from her eye, and she wiped it away quickly. She wasn't going to think of that; she wasn't going to focus on the what-ifs. If she got caught up in imagination, she would worry herself to the bursting point.

Another deep breath, followed by a renewed interest in the phone.

His family was out. So whatever call she would make, it would be for her. Someone to keep her company, to make sure that she didn't drive herself into the ground with this damn hurricane under her skin.

_Ino_. The blonde would probably be worrying her head off at the moment. Of course, Ino. And Shikamaru, too. She had only been here for an hour; she bet that they were just getting away from the party.

The party… a new sickness coursed through her as the memories welled up. Tenten was right; Sai should have abandoned her when he had the chance. Sakura would only pull him down. Or kill him, she thought bitterly.

"Um, miss, are you going to call anyone?" the nurse asked cautiously from the desk. "Or do you need me to call someone for you?"

Sakura flashed the woman another orge smile. "No, it's fine. I was just trying to figure out who to call, that's all."

She quickly dialed Ino's number to show that she was indeed able to work a phone in her condition, and pressed send. She held the phone up to her ear, turning away from the nurse, who was watching her.

The phone rang once, twice. Three times.

"Hello?"

"I-Ino…"

"Sakura?" Ino replied, her tone light. "I notice you aren't in the apartment… and calling me from an unknown number, you dirty girl! What happened, did you and Sai decide to go back to his place? I'll admit, I'm a little surprised-"

"Ino!" Sakura said, loudly. "I-Ino…" she started again, her voice shaking.

She heard a gasp from the other end. "Sakura? Honey, what's wrong? Sakura? Are you okay? What happened?"

"I… I'm at the hospital, I-Ino. It… I just…"

"What? Sweetie, are you hurt? Are you okay? Oh God, Sakura, tell me-"

"I'm trying to tell you, okay! Sai was in a car accident! He… he crashed after he dropped me off and Ino, Ino, it doesn't look good. They haven't come out in an hour, Ino. I know what that means. He's not doing good. At all. Ino, I can't do this again. I can't… I can't…"

The pressure roared into her ears, and her world spun quickly. Everything hurt. Her stomach was throbbing with pain, and her voice cut out. She could barely hear Ino on the other side, telling her it would be okay, and that she would be there in half an hour. "I'll call Shikamaru, too," she promised. "You won't have to go through this alone, Sakura. I promise."

"Thank you, Ino," Sakura said. Ino hung up, and Sakura placed the phone on the seat next to her, sobbing. The overwhelming misery had reached its breaking point again, and she just let it all pour out of her.

She cried, dropping her head back into her hands. The tears dripped off her face, forming a small pool between her shoes.

He couldn't leave her.

She sobbed harder, not even noticing that the nurse had taken her phone back and placed a box of tissues next to her. She didn't take in anything happening around her, not the people moving through the room, or the noises over the intercom, or the nurse answering the phone.

There was no way he could leave her. She wouldn't be able to make it through this if he weren't here with her! If it hadn't been for Sai, she wouldn't have made it through Lee's death- and Lee wasn't even that close to her. If Sai were to go… if he were to leave her, then who would she turn to?

She was alone in her misery, her thoughts. She was on a tiny, solitary island, surrounded by a thrashing and churning black sea.

Ino couldn't do it. Even with all of Ino's strengths, she couldn't keep Sakura going. Ino was her best friend, true, but Sai was _Sai. _It was different.

The wrong thing could make that sea swallow up the last bit of hope that still lived inside of her.

Ino wouldn't be able to pull her out. Neither would Shikamaru, or Hinata.

"Sai," she mumbled, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Sakura!"

Again, her head snapped up, the tears still leaking from her eyes. She had been expecting, unrealistically, to see him before her, about to tell her she looked like a hag who got in a fight with another hag and lost, all while wearing that stupid smile on his face that told her he knew he was insulting her but wanted to pretend he wasn't.

Instead she saw Sasuke standing before her, still in his tux, staring at her with worry all over his face.

"S-S-Sasuke?"

"Ino called me," he explained, taking a few long strides until he was standing before her. He crouched down to her level, and placed his hand on her chin, tilting her head to face him. "Are you alright?" he asked, brushing the tears away with his thumb. "Whatever you need, Sakura, just say it, and I'll try my best."

She stared at him a second longer, and then pulled him into an unexpected and unplanned hug. She could feel his shock, which melted away into acceptance as he slid his arm around her back. "They won't tell me what's going on," she cried into his shoulder. "They won't even tell me if he's in critical condition or what. What am I saying, of course he is! I know he is!"

Sasuke tightened his arm around her. "It will be okay, Sakura. Everything will be okay," he murmured into her ear. His breath was warm and comforting, and his words were filled with confidence. "It's going to be okay, Sakura. I'm here. I won't leave."

She just cried harder. "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she kept repeating. The words died off, being replaced with sobs, which slowly subsided into deep and heavy breathing. The tears had run dry, and the pressure was gone for now. It would be back soon enough.

A few minutes passed, and Sasuke whispered once more into her ear. "Can you stand?"

"I think so," she responded.

"Okay. On the count of three, stand up. One, two, three," he said. She attempted to stand, and immediately found that her legs were weak. But Sasuke, in his intelligence, had accounted for this, and she realized as she stood, that he was supporting most of her weight. He wrapped both of his arms tightly around her, enveloping her in a warm, strong hug. They stayed like that, his arms wrapping around her, almost protecting her from the pain and sadness. She leaned her forehead on his shoulder, and just relaxed.

His presence was soothing and strong. She could feel some of the unnecessary worry drip away. He was right. Things would work out.

"I'm here, Sakura," he repeated as he set her back down into the chair and took the one next to her. "Shikamaru and Ino will be here any minute. You aren't alone in this."

She exhaled. "I know."

She leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes once more. His shoulder was comfortable, perfectly positioned for her head. She could faintly feel his heart beating, and could feel his should move ever so slightly as he breathed, in and out.

They stayed like this for who knows how long. They were comfortable. Sakura was still tense, still worried, still on edge, but Sasuke had a calming effect on her. He was keeping the pain at bay. He was keeping her from insanity.

"You don't have to do this, you know, Sasuke," she said quietly. "I'm just your secretary. You don't need to stay here with me."

He slipped his arm around her. "You're more than just my secretary, Sakura. I can't just leave you here when you're in so much pain. I couldn't do that."

Warm and a feeling of security flooded Sakura's body.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, and Sakura opened her eyes to see what was going on. They were currently the only two people in the ICU waiting room. Walking down the hall was a woman in a white coat. A woman that Sakura recognized.

"Shizune?" Sakura asked, sitting up rapidly. Sasuke's arm dropped from around her shoulder as he looked over to the doctor, as well.

"Oh, thank god, Sakura. I was looking for you! He's alright! Sai's alive; he's stable, and he's in one of the private patient's rooms a little way from the ICU."

Sakura stood up, and walked over to her ex-colleague. "Can you take me to his room?"

Shizune smiled. "Of course. Follow me."

Sakura turned to Sasuke, but he waved her on. "I'll wait here for Shikamaru and Ino so they don't freak out and think you had some sort of attack on my watch. We'll find you guys later."

Sakura smiled, relief flowing through her. "Thank you." She turned back to Shizune, and followed her friend through the hospital.

Shizune stopped, and opened the door to a room on the left of the hallway. "He's in here, Sakura," she said quietly. "He's unconscious, but we don't foresee that lasting a long time. You can go in there for however long you need to- I'll tell them not to disturb this room. Just ring a nurse if anything happens, okay?"

A weak smile played on Sakura's lips as she thanked her old friend. Shizune smiled back, and stepped away from the door, going off to check on other patients as Sakura walked toward the open door.

Her breath caught at the sight of him in the thin hospital gown, bandages covering his lean body, and light trails of blood still on his face. He had quite a few stitches on his head, and Sakura almost laughed at his hair, which had been considerably cut in other to get a few of the stitches on his forehead. He was pale, paler than usual, and there were tubes coming out of his nostrils and mouth. He also had an IV drip inserted into his arm.

He was banged up, medicated out of his mind, and unconscious.

But he was alive. And he was _stable._ Shizune had said that he was stable.

Sakura took the chart from outside of his door, and looked it over quickly. They were afraid of brain damage and memory loss since he wasn't waking, and it seemed like he had quite a few broken bones, including some ribs and his shoulder. He would need to be in the hospital for a while, but he should be fine. As long as there wasn't any brain damage. He had to wake up soon, so they would know that there wasn't anything wrong.

She replaced the chart, yet still stood in the doorway, watching him. The tubes were connected to a machine that was breathing for him until he regained consciousness. She was afraid to go in.

The thoughts from earlier rang in her mind. What if he was there, fighting within himself? Trying to decide whether or not he should go, be free from the chains? Trying to decide to stay?

"Sai," she whispered, moving herself into the room. She barely moved at first, and then gained speed. When she reached his bed, she fell to her knees and put her hand in his. She could feel the knot tying itself in her stomach and something building in her throat, keeping her from speaking.

Her head fell onto the bed, and she shook, unable to cry.

She hoped that somewhere in his mind, Sai could feel her here. That he knew that she was here, waiting for him.

She slightly tightened her hand, trying not to cause pain, but just to let him know that she is here. She will be here.

"You aren't losing me, Sai. I don't know what you meant by that tonight, but it's not true. I'm still here. Ino, Shikamaru, even Sasuke- we're all here. We want you to make it out of this. I can't imagine living without you, Sai."

It always seemed like, in the movies and the TV shows, that when someone was injured and unconscious, a monologue from the other character would bring them back- would jolt them into reality. She wanted him to squeeze her hand, like she had always heard of people doing. Just to let her know that he was alive, that he could hear her.

And what did he mean about losing her, she wondered. Was that why he was staying under? Was he thinking that dying would be easier for her? That she could move on? How could he be losing her? They were as close as ever. And there was no competition for her heart, not now.

If that's what he even was thinking about. Sasuke didn't think of her the way that Sai thought of her. To Sasuke, she was an employee, at most a friend. To Sai, she was so much more.

_Sasuke._ That's definitely what he had meant. She would have understood sooner had the kiss not clouded her mind, and then had the accident not happened, she would have gotten it. But the accident had put those thoughts out of her mind until she had seen him, lying here.

And then she got it.

She stayed on the floor, shaking, the pressure building in her veins.

"Don't do anything stupid, Sai, just wake up!"

"If you want him to wake up, I wouldn't insult his intelligence, forehead," Ino said. Sakura looked over her shoulder, and saw her friend standing in the doorway. Ino had changed into more relaxed clothes, probably before Sakura called her. "Shizune showed me how to get here, if you're wondering. They said that visiting hours weren't coming for a few hours, but I didn't give up until I found her and forced it out of her."

Sakura could imagine Ino storming through the hospital once Sasuke told her that another doctor had taken Sakura away.

"Ino…"

"Don't thank me for coming," she interrupted, waltzing in and taking a seat. "There's no need. You were hurting, Sakura, and you needed support. I wish I could have just materialized so I could have been with you sooner. I didn't want you to be alone longer than you had to and I knew it would be forever until I got here, but luckily I remembered that Sasuke would be driving near Konoha General to get home. I hope you didn't mind that I called him."

A shake of the head preceded Sakura's sentence. "I don't mind. In fact, I'm grateful. He was a lot more of a help that I would have guessed he could have been. He was very soothing- I think I was expecting him to be awkward around a crying girl."

Ino chuckled. "I don't think there's any type of woman Sasuke is awkward around. But I think the comfort had more to do with you than it did with your sex, Sakura."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "And what is that supposed to mean, Inopig?"

"Nothing bad. Just that, he probably saw you crying, and something in him just snapped. He looked pretty shaken up when we saw him, like he wanted to be here with you making sure you weren't falling apart more then he wanted to be waiting for us."

Sakura let this sink in, and she turned her gaze back to Sai. She bit her lip, staring at his face, so peaceful. His chest moved up and down, steadily, because of the machine. The cuts on his face had stopped bleeding.

"I brought you a change of clothes, kid. You need to get out of that dress as soon as possible, you look like a mess. And here's a cloth to wipe your face clean." Sakura turned and took the stuff Ino offered her. Sakura stood up and moved to the corner and Ino turned and closed the blinds to the window showing the hallway. Sakura changed quickly, and then moved back to her former position. Ino took the dress and draped it over the other chair. "He looks pale," Ino commented.

He didn't look as beat up as he was- but then again, Sai never looked like he was in pain. She had never seen him really upset, and if it hadn't been for her increasing ability to tell the subtle shifts in his face, she doubt she would have ever been able to see past his mask.

"Okay, what happened?"

"H-Huh?" Sakura said as her attention was ripped from his face back toward Ino.

"Something happened between you two tonight. I can tell. You're acting different." Ino crossed her arms over her chest, and stared down at her friend from the chair. "Come on, tell me."

Sakura turned her gaze back toward Sai's handsome, pale face. She took a deep breath, exhaled, and took another one. "He kissed me," she said. "He kissed me, and told me that he was afraid of losing me. Well, that he thought he was already losing me. And I didn't understand at first, but now I know- Sasuke. He thought that I… no, he knew that I was beginning to fall for Sasuke. And it was killing him, Ino."

Silence, save for the beeping of the machines that were all packed into the room with them.

"Well damn." The light thud next to her alerted Sakura to Ino's presence before the hug came.

Sakura closed her eyes until Ino let her go.

"Shikamaru and Sasuke are probably wandering around trying to find us. Shikamaru's been calling me since I stormed off in one of my specialized Ino rages," she said with a light chuckle. Then she stood up and walked out, only going a few feet down the hall, but leaving Sakura alone.

Ino always knew when Sakura needed her space, and for that she was grateful.

Sakura pulled her arm back from Sai, and crossed her arms, letting her forehead rest on them. The tears came forth again, dripping onto his bed.

Would he stay? She shook her head, pushing the thought of a funeral out of her mind. She can't worry and fret over that. Sai was strong. Sai was smart. Sai had everything going for him. He wasn't going to leave.

If he woke up, she'd choose him. She would choose him if he would just wake up.

"You can't leave me, Sai. I'll do anything for you to stay here with me. I can't survive without you! Please come back to us."

"Anything?"

Her head shot up. He was grinning weakly, and he looked like he was barely conscious. But he was here. She pressed the button for a nurse, knowing they would want to have his vitals taken, before she took his hand again. He squeezed it, that smile still on his face.

"You're awake!" she said, glee filling her voice. "Does your head hurt? I mean, jeez, how would you know? What's your name? Your age? Your profession? Where did we meet?

"Why do you need to know?"

Sakura tsked loudly, glaring at him before another smile erupted on her face. "Just to make sure that you can still remember things."

"Fine. My name is Sai. I'm twenty seven years old, just like you are. However, my birthday is three months and one week before yours. I'm a lawyer, one of the best around, if I do say so myself. And we met on the first day of our behavioral psychology lass when we were freshman. I sat next to you and you were nervous around me, displaying all the signs of a woman who found a man attractive, as we later learned in that course. You even dropped your pen and blushed slightly when I gave it back to you and smiled. When I first told you two years later, you hit me over the head and yelled loudly, but never disproved my theory that you found me attractive when you first met me. Do I pass?"

She was smiling again; glad that to see that he was okay. "Yes, with flying colors. You memory astounds me, especially since you were in an accident tonight."

He chuckled weakly. "I actually don't remember much about tonight- my memory keeps fading out."

_So he doesn't remember… does that change anything?_ She asked herself, looking into his eyes.

No. He woke up. He's back. She is going to choose him.

"That does make sense- that you wouldn't remember, I mean. Your brain is overloaded with a lot of other stuff. It would make sense for you not to remember a thing about tonight."

"I remember how beautiful you looked tonight, though," he said, gazing intently into her eyes. "I had never seen anything like it- you looked like a goddess. I remember thinking that you were an angel when I first saw you tonight. I think it was the first time I didn't immediately think of joking that you looked like a hag or something. I could only stare. That's it."

She looked at him, stunned. He could remember that? She heard footsteps outside, but didn't turn to see who had arrived. It was probably a nurse, waiting for them to finish so she could take Sai's vitals.

"I don't think I'll ever forget it," he continued. "I don't think I could- my entire world just stopped."

She took in a sharp, deep breath. Yes, she chose him.

In an instant, she had moved. She was leaning over him, her lips on his, her eyes closed. Seconds later, she pulled away, and smiled at him. "Don't you ever scare me like that again, you hear me? Sai, I can't go on without you. Don't leave me."

He was staring at her, wide eyed. Whatever he had been expecting, a kiss was not it. He was shocked- does this mean he was wrong? Was she not falling in love with Sasuke? Or… had something else happened tonight?

Outside of the room, Ino watched with interest as Sakura leaned over and kissed Sai, but she wasn't looking at them. She was standing behind Sasuke, watching him tense as the scene played out before the both of them. _Yep_, she thought, _that settles it._ Sasuke was most definitely under Sakura's spell, to use an old cliché. And she could almost feel the pain and slight anger washing out from him. She put her hand on his back, shocking him, and making him turn to look at her.

"It's nice that he's doing well, isn't it?" she asked sweetly, her eyes on Sai and Sakura.

A nurse brushed past them into the room, and Shikamaru stepped up next to Ino, putting his arm around her. Ino dropped her arm from Sasuke's back, and leaned into her boyfriend.

"Yeah," Sasuke replied. "I'm really glad that he's doing well. And Sakura looks happy to see him awake."

"They are really close, so it's no surprise she's happy to see him alive. He's her best friend, after all," Shikamaru responded, completely unaware of the effect that his words were going to have on Sasuke. Ino wanted to smack him, hard, upside the head and yell at him for being a complete and total dumbass, but that would ruin everything, too. So she settled for pinching him as hard as possible.

He glared down at her, confused, and she glared back up at him.

Sasuke kept looking at the two of them. "They are really close, aren't they? Closer than I thought, at least."

"Well, Sakura is probably really relieved that Sai's still here. I mean, it's been a year, almost to the day, since another one of her friends was in a car accident and died."

Sasuke looked down at Ino, surprised. "What are you...? Really?

"Yep. You heard about Rock Lee, right? Neji's friend? Sakura knew him pretty well, and he was in love with her. Last year, she turned him down, making it clear that there was no hope for him, and he got in a car accident. She, well… she was the doctor who was called in to help with the accident, and he died. Right before her eyes, he died." Ino glanced up at Sasuke from the corner of her eye, and she saw his jawline tighten.

Sakura was a lucky, lucky woman to have people like Sai and Sasuke after her.

"Seeing Sai in the same situation basically tore her into pieces. If he had died, I don't think Sakura could have taken it. So I think, at this point, she's just so glad to have him she's convinced herself of things that aren't true." Ino stared back into the room, watching as Sakura's face lit up as Sai tried to joke with her. She knew her theory was right; Sakura was not in love with Sai. She just wanted to give him what he wanted so badly, since she almost lost him.

But then again, that girl could convince herself of anything.

"You don't know that, Ino," Shikamaru pointed out. He wasn't comfortable with Ino making conclusions for things in which she had no evidence. Ino resisted the urge to beat the living hell out of him, again deciding to take out her frustrations with his idiocy by slamming her foot in his own.

Sasuke just stared at Sakura. She was happy. It didn't look like she was trying to convince herself of things that weren't true; in fact, it looked like she was finally letting her true self come out. It looked like she really, really loved Sai.

He closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He ran a hand through his hair, exhaled, and then turned to Ino and Shikamaru.

"I think I'm going to so," he said, quietly. "Tell Sai I'm glad he's okay, and he can take as much time off as he needs; I'll handle his cases for him."

"I'll help you," Shikamaru added. Sasuke nodded, glad for the help. Sai was successful and worked hard; he took on almost as many clients as Sasuke did, and Sasuke had the most cases in the firm.

He looked back to the room, watching Sakura and Sai with envy. She looked so happy now; it was hard to imagine that just an hour before, he had walked in on her in the waiting room, tears in her eyes. Seeing her like that, he couldn't help but rush over to her. He wanted to make her stop, to make everything better for her.

But he couldn't do that; he could only temporarily stop her sobbing. It tore him up inside to have to leave her to wait for Shikamaru and Ino. It killed him to let go of her.

"And tell Sakura that she looked beautiful tonight, even when she was crying. Tell her I had a wonderful time tonight. Tell her that she can take as much time off as she needs to, as well. And tell her that I'm glad she's okay, too, and if she needs me, I'll be there for her."

"You should tell her yourself," Ino said.

Sasuke dropped his gaze and slid his hands into his pockets before turning around. "I don't want to ruin the moment," he said simply, taking one step forward.

He walked down the hall and out of this hospital, never looking back, while his heart beat painfully in his chest.

**A/N: *cough* Kayso that really depressed me. But it's necessary. I promise it's necessary. Also I hope you guys don't mind that the end wasn't really Sakura's POV. Sorry if you do! Thanks! And thank you especially to everyone who reviewed my other chapters! **

**Also I had this finished earlier but fanfiction wasn't letting me log in. GRRRRRRRRR.**


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